Newswise — CLEVELAND – University Hospitals has recruited Andrew Pieper, MD, PhD, one of the nation’s leading physician-scientists in the field of neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Pieper joins the Harrington Discovery Institute – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development – at UH. Dr. Pieper also will be a faculty member of the Departments of Psychiatry at UH and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center as well as at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
At the Harrington Discovery Institute, Dr. Pieper will serve as Director of the Alzheimer Drug Discovery Foundation-Harrington Scholar Program, which seeks to advance treatments for Alzheimer’s. In addition, Dr. Pieper will serve as Co-director of the Gund-Harrington Scholar program which is focused on accelerating the development of vision-restoring drug therapies. In this leadership capacity, Dr. Pieper will oversee the selection and progress of the ADDF-Harrington and Gund-Harrington grant awardees annually.
“Dr. Pieper has made significant contributions to the understanding of human brain health, and his work promises new classes of medicines for Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease,” said Jonathan S. Stamler, MD, President, Harrington Discovery Institute. “University Hospitals and Harrington Discovery Institute are very fortunate to have recruited someone of his stature to lead these partner programs, which are helping to advance breakthrough discoveries into the clinical realm.”
Dr. Pieper will work with leadership in the Harrington Discovery Institute to promote The Harrington Project mission and the translational capabilities at University Hospitals. “We look forward to Dr. Pieper’s leadership to enhance the impact of both programs nationally and internationally to address major unmet needs for diverse neuro-ophthalmological afflictions,” noted Mukesh K. Jain, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Harrington Discovery Institute and Chief Scientific Officer at UH.
Dr. Pieper joins UH from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine where he was Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and staff psychiatrist at the Iowa City Veterans Administration Health Care System. Dr. Pieper completed his MD PhD, internal medicine, and psychiatry training at John Hopkins University School of Medicine. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) Medical Center, he joined the faculty at UTSW from 2006-2012. In 2012 he moved to the University of Iowa where he became Director of Translational Neuroscience.
Dr. Pieper’s laboratory will continue its focus on the development of novel treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders. He is recognized for the discovery and development of the P7C3-class of neuroprotective aminopropyl carbazoles, with application in traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease and cognitive decline with normal aging. Dr. Pieper’s lab also is implementing similar discovery approaches with other animal models of neuropsychiatric disease, such as autism, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.
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About University Hospitals
Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of 18 hospitals, more than 40 outpatient health centers and 200 physician offices in 15 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system’s flagship academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, located on a 35-acre campus in Cleveland’s University Circle, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The main campus also includes University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children’s hospitals in the nation; University Hospitals MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics, radiology, neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, transplantation and urology. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including “America’s Best Hospitals” from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development. UH is one of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio with 26,000 employees. UH’s vision is “Advancing the science of health and the art of compassion,” and its mission: “To Heal. To Teach. To Discover.” Follow UH on Facebook @UniversityHospitals and Twitter @UHhospitals. For more information, go to UHhospitals.org.
Harrington Discovery Institute
The Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Cleveland, OH – part of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development – aims to advance medicine and society by enabling our nation’s most inventive scientists to turn their discoveries into medicines that improve human health. The institute was created in 2012 with a $50 million founding gift from the Harrington family and instantiates the commitment they share with University Hospitals to a Vision for a ‘Better World’.
The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development
The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development (The Harrington Project), founded in late February 2012 by the Harrington Family and University Hospitals of Cleveland, is a $300 million national initiative built to bridge the translational valley of death. It includes the Harrington Discovery Institute and BioMotiv, a for-profit, mission-aligned drug development company that accelerates early discovery into pharma pipelines.
For more information about The Harrington Project and the Harrington Discovery Institute, visit: HarringtonDiscovery.org.
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