Harrington Discovery Institute's Dr. Jonathan Stamler earns AHA Distinguished Scientist Award

CLEVELAND, Nov. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Jonathan Stamler, MD, Director of the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center, has received the 2013 American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist Award at the association's annual conference in Dallas, TX.

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This prestigious honor, the highest bestowed by the American Heart Association, recognizes individuals whose work has significantly advanced the understanding of cardiovascular disease and stroke. An internationally renowned physician-scientist, Dr. Stamler is recognized for the discovery of a universal mechanism by which the gas nitric oxide affects cellular function in biology.

Nitric oxide controls proteins in the body, helps transport oxygen to tissue and is critical to the physiological function of all organs and tissues, including the heart, nervous system and immune system. Dr. Stamler discovered a process, termed S-nitrosylation, by which nitric oxide attaches to proteins to control cellular function and his and related work has shown that aberrant signaling by S-nitrosylation may underlie the basis of numerous disease conditions, including heart disease, asthma, muscle disorders, and neurological diseases, as well as cancer, infection and aging. His findings anchor the development of new therapeutic approaches for patients with heart and other diseases.

Dr. Stamler is the Director, Harrington Discovery Institute at UH Case Medical Center and is the Robert S. and Sylvia K. Reitman Family Foundation Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Innovation at UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He also is Director, Institute for Transformative Molecular Medicine, and Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at the School of Medicine.

Dr. Stamler has published more than 250 original articles and two books, has co-founded five companies, and serves on multiple editorial and scientific advisory boards. He is the author of more than 125 patents. He received his MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, completed his residency and fellowships in both cardiology and pulmonary medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Stamler joined the faculty at Harvard University before spending 16 years at Duke University. He joined Case Western Reserve and the UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute at UH Case Medical Center in 2010.

Dr. Stamler is currently conducting multiple National Institutes of Health- and Department of Defense-funded studies, to develop new drugs for treatment of heart, lung and blood disorders and complications of blood transfusion. He has also been recognized by several other prizes and awards, including being named among the "Top Innovators in America" by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

In 2012, Dr. Stamler became the inaugural head of the Harrington Discovery Institute, a non-profit organization centered at UH Case Medical Center, which supports the efforts of physician-scientists to advance drug therapies. The HDI is part of a the Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, a $250 million national initiative dedicated to helping the nation's most promising physician-scientists advance breakthrough discoveries into medicines that benefit patients and society.

About University Hospitals
University Hospitals, the second largest employer in Northeast Ohio, serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient centers and primary care physicians in 16 counties. At the core of our health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center, one of only 18 hospitals in the country to have been named to U.S. News & World Report's most exclusive rankings list: the Best Hospitals 2013-14 Honor Roll. The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, UH Case Medical Center is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research centers of excellence in the nation and the world, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopaedics and spine, radiology and radiation oncology, neurosurgery and neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, organ transplantation and human genetics. Its main campus includes the internationally celebrated UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. UH Case Medical Center is the 2012 recipient of the American Hospital Association – McKesson Quest for Quality Prize for its leadership and innovation in quality improvement and safety. For more information, go to www.uhhospitals.org

SOURCE University Hospitals Case Medical Center