News

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has lifted the clinical hold on a Phase 1/2 study testing GTX-102 — an investigational therapy by GeneTx Biotherapeutics and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical — in children and adolescents with Angelman syndrome. GeneTx is now cleared to begin dosing treatment-naïve patients — those who have never received…

A crowdfunding campaign aims to raise $45,000 to support “Rare,” a documentary film featuring the struggles and achievements of people living with rare diseases and their families. Sweis Entertainment and Digital Cave Media launched the campaign — allowing filmmakers to finish producing and to release the documentary — on Kickstarter.

A new U.S. initiative called Rare Disease Cures Accelerator–Data and Analytics Platform — dubbed RDCA–DAP — aims to accelerate treatment innovation across rare diseases by sharing existing patient data and promoting the standardization of new data collection. Launched during a virtual workshop in September, the U.S. Food and Drug…

Football and science seem to be disparate fields of play at first glance, but the nonprofit Uplifting Athletes is finding common ground by leveraging the popularity of college gridiron games to fund research for rare diseases. Its nearly two dozen chapters — representing college football teams across the nation…

A newly launched non-profit institute is seeking to advance research, and the development of new therapies, for people with rare diseases — a patient community with some of the largest therapeutic needs, but one that is often left behind. Named the Institute for Life Changing Medicines, the project was…

A new collaboration will help to speed the analysis, correlation, and publication of data sets from an ongoing natural history study, and a previous similar study in people with Angelman syndrome (AS). The ongoing study (NCT04507997), funded by the U.S. Food and Drug…

A dietary supplement meant to mimic the effects of a ketogenic diet — known to reduce seizure frequency in patients with Angelman syndrome — was well-tolerated by children with the neurological disorder, according to data from a small clinical trial. The trial met its primary goal of assessing the…

Participation in clinical trials exposes rare disease patients to financial, physical, and emotional pressures, according to the results of a patient focus group series. “Rare disease trial participants are running an endurance race they are highly motivated to complete, but these incremental burdens negatively impact their ability or willingness to…

A professor at the University of California (UC) Davis Health has been awarded a $1.36 million Discovery Stage Research Projects (DISC2) grant to develop a gene therapy for Angelman syndrome, according to a university press release. David Segal, PhD, a professor in the departments of biochemistry and molecular…

The National Organization for Rare Disorders, known as NORD, was named an official charity partner of the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon, which will be held Nov. 7 both in-person and online. “Supporting charitable causes and organizations are a long-standing tradition of the TCS New York City…