Summit Fund

Translating Discoveries into Treatments

Opportunities exist today to bring products to market that address important unmet medical needs in hearing and vision disorders. Such products can profoundly impact the quality of life of children and adults suffering with these conditions.

Traditionally, despite thousands of breakthrough medical discoveries being made each year, only a handful of new drugs and devices make it to market and the patients who need them. Since venture capital and commercial entities typically fund these developments, only opportunities with the highest return on investment and the most favorable risk profiles are pursued. Other potentially worthy translational research projects may never be explored due to declining funding from the NIH and the lack of traditional funding for translational research.

The Mass Eye and Ear Summit Fund was launched with the goal of raising philanthropic support from friends of Mass Eye and Ear to help fast-track the translation of laboratory discoveries into approved medical devices and pharmaceutical treatments to improve the lives of patients. These philanthropic gifts are augmented with additional funding from Mass Eye and Ear’s long-term investment pool.

Role of the Summit Fund

The Mass Eye and Ear Summit Fund is a highly selective opportunity to support promising projects that can be positioned to attract venture and industry partners. Funded projects will have financial support for translational research that may lay the foundation for development of treatments or devices and potential handoff to a commercial entity.

To this end, the Summit Fund has partnered with the Mass General Brigham Innovation Team to bring additional industry expertise and technology development tools to Mass Eye and Ear investigators. Pre-proposals may be submitted to the Summit Fund at any time through the internal website.

To learn more about the application process, please contact:

• Summit Fund at MEESummitFund@mgb.org
• Angelica Messana, Program Manager, at amessana@mgb.org
• Erin McKenna, Head of Medical Devices and Operating Partner, at emckenna4@partners.org

Applicants are encouraged to review the pre-proposal template and the FAQs on the Vitals internal website (login required).

Financial Return to Mass Eye and Ear

The Mass Eye and Ear Summit Fund will pave the way to commercial success for important discoveries. Selected projects funded through the Summit Fund can provide a long-term return for the hospital in the form of milestone payments and product royalties when intellectual property is licensed to a commercial entity. The hospital’s investment in earlier development phases can also increase the value of our intellectual property, enhancing the potential stream of revenue to be re-invested in Mass Eye and Ear’s research mission.

Gifts to the Mass Eye and Ear Summit Fund

Gifts to the Mass Eye and Ear Summit Fund are tax-deductible. If you are interested in learning more about supporting the Summit Fund, please contact Melissa Paul at Melissa_Paul@meei.harvard.edu or 617-573-4168.