Salute e Benessere
Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Announces 2025 Scholars Advancing Promising Treatments
Rare diseases affect an estimated 500 million people worldwide—half of whom are children. Yet, fewer than 5% of the 7,000 known rare diseases have approved treatments. The OHC, a unique partnership between the University of Oxford , UK and Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals, Cleveland, Ohio , is on a mission to accelerate progress by combining philanthropy, world-class science and entrepreneurial drug development.
"Behind every rare disease is a person, a family and a story of resilience," "At OHC, we believe that by bringing together the best of academia and cutting-edge medical research, with life sciences, pharma, philanthropy and venture capital from around the world, we can achieve transformational results, closing the gap between research and drug development and turning hope into the reality of new treatments for patients and their families. These awards are an important step toward achieving our mission of 40 new treatments for rare diseases within a decade."
Through the Rare Disease Scholar Award, the 2025 cohort is working on treatments for a wide range of rare conditions impacting the brain, immune system, metabolism, and cancer. Cutting-edge approaches include gene and RNA therapies, enzyme replacement and targeted medicines—tools that could help correct or manage the underlying causes of these diseases.
"We've seen remarkable progress from our inaugural class of OHC Scholars, with several projects already moving closer to clinical application," said . "With the 2025 Scholar Awards, we are adding ten new OHC programs and tackling some of the most challenging rare diseases through pioneering gene, RNA, small molecule and cell-based therapies."
OHC seeks to advance 40 drugs into clinical trials by 2034 and offers a new model for rare disease innovation that progresses Scholar discoveries through a structured, industry-informed approach.
"The OHC builds on Oxford University's outstanding scientific capabilities with Harrington's track record in drug development," said . "Our vision for these programs is not just for each to address a single rare disease but ultimately to identify new platforms for treating multiple rare diseases���and even common diseases."
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University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
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University of Oxford , Oxford, UK
– Icahn School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai, New York , NY, USA
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University of Florida , Gainesville, FL , USA
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University of California, Irvine , Irvine, CA , USA
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Stanford University , Stanford, CA , USA
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Baylor College of Medicine , Houston, TX , USA
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University of California, Davis , Davis, CA , USA
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University of California, San Francisco , San Francisco, CA , USA
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Baylor College of Medicine , Houston, TX , USA
For those interested in submitting a proposal for the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Scholar Award, . For more information, visit: OxfordHarrington.org/funding
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/oxford-harrington-rare-disease-centre-announces-2025-scholars-advancing-promising-treatments-302621853.html