Harrington Discovery Institute Announces 2026 Scholar-Innovator Award Recipients

Drug development grant will advance 10 physician-scientists' discoveries toward the clinic

CLEVELAND, May 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, today announced the 2026 class of Harrington Scholar-Innovators. The scholar awards will support breakthrough new treatments for common and rare diseases, including cardiovascular, inflammatory, hematologic, and oncologic disease, using small molecule, biologic, 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 227 drugs-in-the-making, 75 institutions, 47 company launches, 24 clinical candidates, and 15 licenses to pharma.

"These extraordinary physician‑scientists are working on some of the most urgent and complex challenges in medicine today," 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. "Our objective is to surround bold scientific ideas with the expertise and resources needed to translate these discoveries into meaningful clinical impact."

"The work of these scholars illustrates the creativity and innovation required to truly change the course of disease," 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; Harrington Endowed Chair for Scientific Director; and Professor of Medicine at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University. "Many of these advances might otherwise stall at the discovery stage, which is exactly the gap Harrington was designed to close."

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 vehicles and to its charitable partner Morgan Stanley GIFT Cures.

The 2026 Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award recipients, their organizations and fields of research are:  

Jodie Babitt, MD – Massachusetts General Hospital
A Novel Iron Therapy for the Treatment of Anemia

Behnam Badie, MD – City of Hope
A Next-Generation Medicine to Combat Brain Swelling in Malignant Tumors

Senthil Velan Bhoopalan, MD – St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Advanced Gene Therapy for a Rare Genetic Anemia (Diamond-Blackfan)

Elliot Chaikof, MD, PhD – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Therapies to Prevent Life-Threatening Blood Clots in Cancer

Stephen Chan, MD, PhD – University of Pittsburgh
New Approach to Treatment of Pulmonary Hypertension, a Fatal Lung Disease

Steven Chan, MD, PhD – University Health Network
Drug to Cure a Blood Cancer, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, by Targeting Stem Cells

Timothy Hla, MD, PhD – Boston Children's Hospital
A Lipid-Carrier Protein that Rejuvenates Brain Blood Vessels to Combat Alzheimer's Disease

Suzanne Lentzsch, MD, PhD – Columbia University
Engineered Immune Proteins that treat the Blood Cell Cancer, Multiple Myeloma

Steven Marx, MD – Columbia University
Therapy to Improve Heart function in Heart Failure

Markus Müschen, MD, PhD – Yale University
Drugging a Key Enzyme to Treat Immune Cell Cancers

Harrington Discovery Institute is now accepting full proposals for the 2027 Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award. The deadline to submit a full proposal is June 22, 2026 11:59PM. Learn more and apply to the 2027 Scholar-Innovator Award at HarringtonDiscovery.org/Scholar-Innovators.

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SOURCE Harrington Discovery Institute