The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation and Harrington Discovery Institute Announce 2014 Award Recipients

CLEVELAND, June 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers from The Ohio State (Columbus) and Emory (Atlanta) Universities will be the first recipients of drug discovery funding and innovation support from a new partnership between the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) and Harrington Discovery Institute (HDI) at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. 

The organizations will leverage their combined expertise and resources to advance highly promising Alzheimer's disease drug discovery projects conducted in academic medical institutions nationwide. 

The 2014 ADDF Harrington Scholar Award recipients are:  

• Emory University's Thota Ganesh, PhD, Principal Investigator, and Allen Levey, MD, Physician Collaborator, whose research focuses on a novel anti-inflammation drug for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease
• The Ohio State University's Chien-Liang Lin, PhD, Principal Investigator, and Douglas W. Sharre, MD, Physician Collaborator, will develop novel drugs that modulate neurotransmission as potential therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease

"We are pleased to be collaborating with Harrington Discovery Institute to provide pharmaceutical development expertise to two highly innovative academic drug discovery projects," said Howard Fillit, MD, Executive Director and Chief Science Officer, ADDF. "The newly named ADDF Harrington Scholars will receive critical support that will accelerate the translation of their discoveries into potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease patients."

The 2014 ADDF Harrington Scholars will each receive funding from the ADDF to support translational research. The HDI's Innovation Support Center will provide strategic project management including: consulting services from highly experienced drug development personnel; regulatory and commercialization advice; and assistance in securing additional financial support. 

ADDF Harrington Scholars will also have access to BioMotiv, a for-profit commercialization company associated with the Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, and aligned with HDI in mission and structure. BioMotiv was created to advance discoveries by academic researchers in areas of unmet need.

"Our selection process focuses foremost on the potential of discoveries made by the ADDF Harrington Scholars to slow the progression of Alzheimer's and improve the quality of life of patients impacted by the disease," said Jonathan Stamler, MD, Director of the HDI and Robert S. and Sylvia K. Reitman Family Foundation Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Innovation and Director of the Institute for Transformative Molecular Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and UH Case Medical Center.  "We are honored to join forces with the ADDF in our mission to bridge the critical gap in funding, enabling the scientific pursuit of many innovative and novel therapies that might otherwise go unexplored."

About the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation
The mission of the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) is to accelerate the discovery and development of drugs to prevent, treat and cure Alzheimer's disease, related dementias and cognitive aging. The ADDF has granted more than $65 million to fund over 450 Alzheimer's drug discovery programs in academic centers and biotechnology companies in 18 countries. For more information about the ADDF, please visit www.alzdiscovery.org.

About the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, launched in February of 2012 with a generous gift from the Harrington Family of Hudson, Ohio, is part of a $250 million national model, The Harrington Project for Development and Discovery, to accelerate the development of medical breakthroughs by physician-scientists into medicines that benefit patients.  The model aligns, through mission and structure, nonprofit and for-profit resources into a new system for drug development. It addresses a set of major challenges in medicine that have created a development gap for promising discoveries and contributed to a long-term decline in new medicine approvals.  Included in the model is the Cleveland-based development company BioMotiv, a for-profit entity created in 2012 to advance academic discoveries into medicines.  For more information about the Harrington Discovery Institute, please visit HarringtonDiscovery.org

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SOURCE University Hospitals Case Medical Center