The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (‘OHC’) has announced the recipients of the 2025 Rare Disease Scholar Award, which advances promising discoveries from academic labs into clinical practice.
Each Scholar will receive an advisory team providing advanced drug and business development support of £100,000 and the opportunity to compete for additional advisory support, acceleration funds, and to qualify for investment funds up to $1,000,000 according to project requirements.
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.
Esther Becker is the only 2025 Scholar selected from the UK for her research on New Small Molecules to Treat Spinocerebellar Ataxia (SCA). SCA is a complex group of rare autosomal dominant movement disorders that are characterised by the progressive dysfunction and degeneration of the cerebellum. There is no approved effective treatment available for patients with SCA. This makes SCA a major unmet clinical need that requires the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Esther’s funded project aims to develop small, CNS-penetrant inhibitors of the transient receptor potential channel 3 (TRPC3), which has emerged as a key player affected in SCA.
Esther says “I am absolutely thrilled to have been selected as one of the 2025 Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Scholars. The award will allow my team to work even more closely together with Paul Brennan’s group at the Centre for Medicines Discovery to develop and test novel TRPC3 inhibitors. The support from the OHC will make a huge difference in moving our research forward into life-changing therapies for patients with spinocerebellar ataxia.”
Read more about the 2025 scholars on the OHC website.