CLEVELAND, April 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- National and international nominations are being sought for the second annual Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine, which honors a medical researcher for notable achievements in innovation, creativity and potential for clinical application.

The Harrington Prize, which carries a $20,000 honorarium, is the result of collaboration between The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the nation's oldest and most respected medical honor societies, and the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio. The Harrington Discovery Institute, part of a national initiative called The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, is a nonprofit institute dedicated to enabling physician-scientists to transform their discoveries into therapies that enhance patient care. Both organizations understand the hurdles that hinder advancement of discovery into medicines that improve human health, and they are eager to highlight those who have navigated the path successfully.

Deadline for nominations is August 15, 2014
A nomination form can be found at: HarringtonDiscovery.org/ThePrize

A committee composed of members of the ASCI Council and the Harrington Discovery Institute Scientific Advisory Board will review nominations and select the recipient. In addition to the honorarium, the awardee delivers the Harrington Prize Lecture at the 2015 ASCI/AAP Joint Meeting (April 24-26) and publishes an essay in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Harry Dietz, MD, inaugural Harrington Prize awardee, published an essay entitled, A Healthy Tension in Translational Research in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and delivered the Harrington Prize Lecture at the 2014 ASCI and Association of American Physicians Joint Meeting on April 26. Read Dr. Dietz's essay at: jci.org/articles/view/75840

Dr. Dietz is the Victor A. McKusick Professor of Genetics in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Molecular Biology and Genetics at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Director of the William S. Smilow Center for Marfan Syndrome Research.

For more information about Harrington Prize nominations, ASCI and the Harrington Discovery Institute, please visit HarringtonDiscovery.org or contact Natalie Haynes, Harrington Discovery Institute Program Manager, at 216-368-1038 or Natalie.Haynes@UHhospitals.org. 

The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development

The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development (The Harrington Project), announced in late February 2012, is a first-of-its-kind $250M national initiative, powered by a $50 million gift from the Harrington family. It includes the Harrington Discovery Institute and a for-profit, mission-aligned development company, BioMotiv.

For more information about The Harrington Project, the Harrington Discovery Institute and the Harrington Prize go to: HarringtonDiscovery.org

The Creation of a Novel Commercialization Vehicle: Bringing Discoveries to Market
As part of the The Harrington Project, the Institute is aligned with a new mission-driven, for profit development company, BioMotiv.  BioMotiv will build a portfolio of high-value, early-stage development programs and will leverage the extensive insights and networks of national scientific and commercial advisory boards. It will advance programs to a stage of clinical development that will attract additional financial and industry partners. BioMotiv is dedicated to advancing discoveries by the nation's universities and medical centers. For more information go to:  BioMotiv.com.

About the ASCI
The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), established in 1908, is one of the nation's oldest and most respected medical honor societies. The ASCI comprises more than 3,000 physician-scientists from all medical specialties elected to the Society for their outstanding records of scholarly achievement in biomedical research. The ASCI represents active physician-scientists who are at the bedside, at the research bench, and at the blackboard. Many of its members are widely recognized leaders in academic medicine. The ASCI is dedicated to the advancement of research that extends our understanding and improves the treatment of human diseases, and members are committed to mentoring future generations of physician-scientists. The ASCI considers the nominations of several hundred physician-scientists from the United States and abroad each year and elects up to 80 new members each year for their significant research accomplishments.

About University Hospitals
University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of hospitals, outpatient centers and primary care physicians. At the core of our health system is University Hospitals Case Medical Center. 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 clinical 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. For more information, go to UHhospitals.org.

SOURCE University Hospitals