Merkin’s $400,000 prize for health startups

Color health, startup, democratizing healthcare
Color Health, is an Israeli-founded startup democratizing healthcare

Who doesn’t want to improve human health? Whether it’s reducing pain and inflammation from medical cannabis innovations or targeting cancer cells through personalized mRNA immunotherapy drugs, or novel insights into gut bacterial systems that increase our longevity. If you have a company or biomedical startup in this field, MIT and Harvard want you!

These universities are hosting a new prize, called the Richard N. Merkin Prize in Biomedical Technology and the winners will share $400,000 for their work. 

The prize recognises novel technologies that have improved human health.

About the Merkin Family Foundation

The Merkin Family Foundation was founded by health care executive Dr. Richard Merkin, MD. Dr Merkin is the founder and chief executive officer of Heritage Provider Network and focuses his work and the bulk of his philanthropy on new paths to cures and to affordable, high-quality health care. 

The prize will celebrate a novel technology and recognize up to four key contributors to the development of the technology, with a cash award of $400,000 to be shared among each year’s recipients. The winning technology must have made a demonstrable real-world impact on human health by improving the treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of disease. 

The Merkin Prize is administered by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, one of the world’s leading biomedical research institutes. 

“The Merkin Prize will highlight the inventors of an important medical technology and will demonstrate how their work is transforming healthcare,” said Harold Varmus, a Nobel Prize winner for his work on the origins of cancer.

Eligibility for receipt of the Merkin Prize extends to all living investigators from anywhere in the world, using any discipline in academia, the commercial sector, or government. Anyone may submit a nomination, but self-nominations are not permitted. 

Nominations must be submitted by Jan. 23, 2023

For further information visit merkinprize.org

If you want to submit a prize, dream job, or new company transforming the planet and healthcare, email us: [email protected]

Karin Kloosterman
Karin Kloostermanhttp://www.greenprophet.com
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]

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