News

Rare Disease Day Panel Opens Window to Patient Experience

Bionews, the publisher of this website, hosted a virtual panel discussion on Rare Disease Day 2022, taking a deeper dive into what it’s like to live with a rare disease, including conversations about advocacy, mental health, survivor’s guilt, treatment of minority patients, and more. The Monday event, “A…

Supporters Set to ‘Light the Night’ for Amyloidosis Awareness Month

To mark Amyloidosis Awareness Month, observed each March, the Amyloidosis Foundation is reprising its “Light the Night for Amyloidosis” campaign. The month-long initiative is aimed at heightening awareness about amyloidosis, a group of rare disorders that also includes familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP), a progressive disease caused by the…

Q&A With RARE-X Disease Data Platform Founder, Nicole Boice

The nonprofit RARE-X is creating an easily-accessible, centralized data hub for all rare disease patient data that can help researchers answer questions about existing disorders, discover new ones, and work toward finding treatments. It was spun out of the work that Nicole Boice, founder and chief engagement officer of…

Skin Biopsy May Help Diagnose FAP in Early Stages for Treatment

A skin biopsy may help speed up the diagnosis of familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP), including for asymptomatic people with disease-causing mutations who are at higher risk of developing full-blown disease, according to a single-center retrospective study. This would allow patients, especially those with the Val30Met mutation, to receive treatment…

Rare Disease Day Events Bring Awareness, Equity to Patients

Since 2008, Rare Disease Day — the last day of February — has brought together patients, caregivers, family members, friends, and advocates from around the world to raise awareness and improve equity for the more than 7,000 known rare diseases that affect more than 300 million people. In 2022, the…