Drug development grant will advance 10 physician-scientists' discoveries toward the clinic
Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, today announced the 2025 class of Harrington Scholar-Innovators. The scholar awards will support breakthrough new treatments for common and rare diseases, including cardiovascular, inflammatory and infectious diseases and cancer, using small molecule, nucleic acid, cell-based, and genetic therapies.
Harrington Discovery Institute was established in 2012 to accelerate the development of new treatments to address unmet needs in medicine. Since its founding, Harrington has supported 214 drugs-in-the-making, 74 institutions, 43 company launches, 21 clinical candidates, and 15 licenses to pharma.
“These 10 discoveries hold great promise for transforming patient care. Our goal is to help an exceptional class of Scholar-Innovators see the impact of their work become a reality,” said Jonathan S. Stamler, MD, President and Co-Founder, Harrington Discovery Institute, Distinguished University Professor, Robert S. and Sylvia K. Reitman Family Foundation Chair of Cardiovascular Innovation, and Professor of Medicine and of Biochemistry at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University.
“These physician-scientists represent the best of academic medicine-innovative, driven, and focused on impact. Through Harrington's unique model of support, we aim to accelerate their progress toward delivering new therapies to the patients who need them most,” said Seth J. Field, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Director, Physician-Scientist Programs, Harrington Discovery Institute, Becky Hennessy Endowed Master Clinician in Breast Cancer Genomics, and Professor of Medicine at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University.
In addition to grant funding and drug and business development guidance, Harrington Scholar-Innovators have the opportunity to compete for acceleration funds up to $300,000 and to qualify for mission-related investment funds typically up to $2MM. Scholars have facilitated access to Harrington's mission-aligned commercial entities including the Advent-Harrington Impact Fund, and to its charitable partner Morgan Stanley GIFT Cures.
The 2025 Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award recipients, their organizations and fields of research are:
Ravit Boger, MD – Medical College of WisconsinDrugs to treat a deadly viral infection in immunocompromised patients
Robert Bonomo, MD – Case Western Reserve UniversityNew antibiotics to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections
Jacob Brenner, MD, PhD – University of PennsylvaniaA new approach to enable gene therapy to treat multiple diseases
George Daley, MD, PhD – Boston Children's HospitalTreating autoimmune disease with off-the-shelf immune cells
Hamed Jafar-Nejad, MD – Baylor College of MedicineGene therapy to treat a rare inherited disease, Alagille Syndrome
Danny Khalil, MD, PhD – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer CenterA drug to enable our immune systems to attack solid cancers
Deepak Nijhawan, MD, PhD – University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Treatment of common cancers by inhibiting ribosomes (cell machines that make proteins)
Alexander Rotenberg, MD, PhD – Boston Children's HospitalGene therapy for a rare inherited disease, Succinic Semialdehyde Dehydrogenase Deficiency (SSADHD)
Nathan Stitziel, MD, PhD – Washington University in St. LouisTreatment for heart disease and stroke by inhibiting novel pathways
Leonard Zon, MD – Boston Children's HospitalImproving growth of stem cells to enable bone marrow transplants
Harrington Discovery Institute is now accepting Letters of Intent for the 2026 Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award. The deadline to submit a brief Letter of Intent is June 4, 2025 11:59 PM.The full application deadline, for those invited to submit, is August 4, 2025. Learn more and apply to the 2026 Scholar-Innovator Award at HarringtonDiscovery.org/Scholar-Innovators.
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SOURCE Harrington Discovery Institute
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