University Hospitals Case Medical Center's Harrington Discovery Institute Launches Grant Program to Accelerate Drug Discovery and Development

CLEVELAND, May 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- University Hospitals Case Medical Center's Harrington Discovery Institute has announced a grant competition that serves as a nationwide search for physician-scientists seeking support to accelerate their promising drug discoveries into novel treatments for patients. The Harrington Scholar-Innovator grants will create a bold new pathway for these researchers, who are inspired by their patients, to discover and create novel therapies.

Lacking government and investor funding and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, many researchers have drug discoveries that are unable to advance into clinical development. 

Aimed at addressing this critical issue, the UH Harrington Discovery Institute, launched in February, is the not-for-profit academic medical engine of The Harrington Discovery and Development Project: a first-of-its-kind, $250 million initiative that also includes a mission-aligned, for-profit development company. Aligning these entities for the first time at an academic medical center provides a comprehensive model to advance discoveries into development and to create novel drugs and therapies for patient care.

"This is an important step forward for our exciting initiative, which is to create a new model for drug discovery and development in academia," says the Institute's Director, Jonathan Stamler, MD. "Supporting physician-scientists through the Harrington Scholar-Innovator grants in their early research will address the funding and expertise gaps that exist, thereby helping these researchers to move their clinical discoveries forward."   

The annual grant competition, run by UH Harrington Discovery Institute, will offer to support the translation of research from laboratory to early development stages. Up to ten physician-scientists each year will be supported with Harrington Scholar-Innovator grants of up to $200,000 over two years. Guiding the selection of the grant winners are seven prominent physician-scientists who have joined the UH Harrington Discovery Institute Scientific Advisory Board.

"Beyond the grant, we will be there every step of the way for entrepreneurial physician-scientists," adds Dr. Stamler, who is also Director of the Institute for Transformative Molecular Medicine at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "Physician-scientists will be able to tap into a peer network of innovators and mentors within the UH Harrington Discovery Institute's infrastructure to support their discovery efforts."

The grant application is open to physician-scientists at accredited academic medical centers, research institutions, and universities in the United States. Applicants must have a doctorate in medicine, and must demonstrate exceptional promise as physician-scientists. The grant will recognize the importance of innovation to the mission of the physician-scientist. Applications found at UHHarringtonDiscoveryInstitute.org are due by 5 p.m. ET, August 1, 2012, and recipients will be announced in the spring of 2013 at the UH Harrington Discovery Institute's inaugural scientific symposium.

"The Harrington Scholar-Innovator Grants are game-changers for physician-scientists across the country who face a number of obstacles in advancing their breakthroughs through commercialization," said Andrew Schafer, MD, chairman of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and physician-in-chief at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. "UH Harrington Discovery Institute has identified these obstacles – funding, time pressures and lack of expert guidance – and has created a model specifically designed to reduce, or even eliminate, their effects on therapeutic innovation."

Dr. Stamler concludes, "These grants are intended to ensure that physician-scientists can advance their discoveries and that their careers that are dedicated to furthering the mission: To Heal. To Teach. To Discover. This is University Hospitals Case Medical Center's mission, and mirrors that of major academic medical centers and dedicated physician-scientists throughout the country."

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The Harrington Project for Discovery and Development
The Harrington Project for Discovery and Development (The Harrington Project), announced in late February, is a first-of-its-kind initiative and is powered by a $50 million gift – the largest donation in UH history – from the Harrington family, recognized entrepreneurs and philanthropists in Cleveland. It includes the University Hospitals Harrington Discovery Institute and a new, for-profit, mission-aligned development company, which will be announced this summer.  Aligning the entities for the first time with an academic medical center as an engine for innovations, The Harrington Project provides a comprehensive model to advance discoveries into development and to create novel drugs and therapies for patient care.

The open design of the institute – based at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland's University Circle – will allow for collaboration with major academic medical centers across the country. University Hospitals Case Medical Center is a nationally recognized academic medical center and is the primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. For more information about The Harrington Project, UH HDI and access to the Scholar-Innovator grants program application, go to: UHHarringtonDiscoveryInstitute.org.

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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 Case Medical Center's Harrington Discovery Institute