News

Ahead of this year’s Rare Disease Week on Capitol Hill, held virtually July 14–22, the EveryLife Foundation will award grants to top advocates of rare disease organizations who participate in the week’s pre-events. The top 50 point-earners will be eligible to win $1,000 to $5,000in  grants, totaling up…

Health Canada has given the green light for a Phase 1/2 clinical trial to resume enrollment to test the investigational therapy GTX-102 in children and adolescents with Angelman syndrome in Canada. This follows an amendment to the trial’s protocol, submitted by GeneTx Biotherapeutics and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, the therapy co-developers, after…

A newly funded research project seeks to create cellular models that can be used to study two of the less common types of genetic abnormalities that cause Angelman syndrome. The project, funded by the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST), will investigate uniparental disomy (UPD) and imprinting errors…

The Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics, known as FAST, will get a high-octane boost when professional racecar driver Cameron Lawrence makes his debut at the upcoming NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The inaugural event at the Circuit of the Americas will be broadcast live on Saturday, May 22 at…

Children with Angelman syndrome respond to different types of rewards to promote learning, and the preferred type may vary based on the genetic cause, a new study indicates. The study, “Refining the Behavioral Phenotype of Angelman Syndrome: Examining Differences in Motivation for Social Contact Between Genetic Subgroups,”…

Beginning in July, a global 24-hour emergency and urgent care hotline will be available for provider-to-provider consultations to appropriately manage issues, particularly seizures, related to Angelman syndrome. The free hotline is funded through an Emergency Care Consortium grant provided by the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST). The…

Two U.S.-based Angelman syndrome (AS) nonprofits have created a working group that aims to further awareness and treatment of the rare genetic disorder through legislative advocacy. The Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics, known as FAST, and the Angelman Syndrome Foundation, called ASF, have formed a legislative group…

Ovid Therapeutics is stopping its clinical program for OV101 (gaboxadol), a candidate therapy for both Angelman and fragile X syndrome, in favor of focusing its resources on OV882, a potential RNA therapy for Angelman patients, it announced in a corporate update. The…

More than half of the people with rare diseases and their caregivers, asked in a survey, were undecided or less than willing to be vaccinated for COVID-19 if a vaccine was approved under emergency use authorization instead of the routine process, the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Disease reports. These findings…

The EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases is accepting applications for a scholarship program that aims to help adults with a rare disease pursue personal goals through training and education. For a second year, the #RAREis Scholarship Fund — supported by Horizon Therapeutics – will award 35 one-time scholarships, each…