News

The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) recently created a Rare Disease Diversity Coalition focused on reducing racial disparities in the rare disease community. Getting a timely and accurate diagnosis for a disease that few people — sometimes even physicians — have heard of is challenging on its own merit.

Several genes involved in lipid (fat) metabolism, nerve cell communication, and DNA damage response may be therapeutic targets for Rett syndrome, a genetic screening in mice suggests. The work, which identified mutations associated with eased Rett symptoms in mice, was the first to point out the involvement of…

While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic won’t have much of an impact on cash available for new biotech startups, it has begun to cause delays in the development of gene therapies to treat a variety of rare diseases. That’s the consensus of industry experts who spoke in a May 26 webinar…

Blocking the activity of pro-inflammatory P2X7 receptors — a class of receptors found in immune cells and in glial cells (cells that support and protect neurons) — can reduce brain inflammation and ease defects in social behavior, a study of a mouse model of Rett syndrome shows. The research, study…

European authorities must step up efforts to screen babies for a multitude of genetic disorders, a panel of experts suggested during a May 14-15 online medical conference. The session was part of the 10th European Conference on Rare Diseases & Orphan Products (ECRD2020) — which was to have occurred…

The scientists who discovered the MECP2 gene and its role in Rett syndrome have been awarded the 2020 Brain Prize, the world’s largest neuroscience prize granted by the Lundbeck Foundation. Sir Adrian…

Dara Riva always had a rule that her 10-year-old son could play video games only once a week. But then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and her perspective changed. Riva’s son, Maximilian, has cystic fibrosis (CF), making him particularly susceptible to COVID-19 and the complications that can arise from it.

Eurordis, a Paris-based coalition of national rare disease associations across Europe, hosted its first all-virtual conference, bringing some 1,500 delegates from 57 countries together online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 10th European Conference on Rare Diseases & Orphan Products (ECRD2020) — which was set for May 14–15 in…

Taysha Gene Therapies has raised $30 million and established a partnership with UT Southwestern Medical Center to expand its gene therapy program for neurological disorders caused by mutations in a single gene, called monogenic diseases, including Rett syndrome. The funding will allow the company to expand its…

The Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN) has opened an online survey to better understand how the COVID-19 outbreak is affecting people with rare diseases, their families, and caregivers. Survey questions cover a patient’s physical and mental health, supply of treatments, and access to healthcare, among other…