News

The European Union isn’t doing enough to protect the 30 million or so people with rare diseases who live in its 28 member countries, officials meeting last week in Vienna said. More than 900 people from 58 nations attended the 9th European Conference on Rare Diseases & Orphan Drugs (ECRD),…

The professionals and parents who are part of the Fragile X Clinical and Research Consortium (FXCRC) have updated treatment and intervention recommendations for fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS). FXTAS is a late-onset neurodegenerative disease that was first identified in older, mainly male, grandparents and parents of individuals with…

A University of Virginia scientist has won the Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award for her work on neurodevelopmental disorders that occur during childhood. The research of Sanchita Bhatnagar, PhD, will be funded with $100,000 per year for three years. Bhatnagar is one of 12 recipients…

Babies with fragile X syndrome have less-developed brain white matter compared to those without the syndrome, according to researchers.  Their study, “Development of White Matter Circuitry in Infants With Fragile X Syndrome,” was published in JAMA Psychiatry. Fragile X syndrome is caused by mutations in the FMR1…

Lysogene has signed a partnership agreement with Hervé Moine, a pioneering French researcher, to potentially develop a gene therapy for fragile X syndrome (FXS) based partly on work supported by the Fraxa Research Foundation. Moine, a member of the Institute of Genetics, Molecular and Cell Biology (IGBMC) and…

At least 800 people representing some 45 countries are soon expected to gather in Austria’s capital city, Vienna, for ECRD 2018, the 9th European Conference on Rare Diseases and Orphan Products. The May 10-12 meeting is sponsored by Eurordis, the Paris-based group that defines itself as a “patient-driven alliance”…

Mice that lack the gene responsible for fragile X syndrome have similar changes in brain activity in the auditory cortex as those reported in humans. The study with that finding, “Translation-relevant EEG phenotypes in a mouse model of Fragile X Syndrome,” was published in the journal of Neurobiology…

It’s not every day a Southeast Asian monarchy bestows a $100,000 prize on a U.S. government research agency. In fact, it rarely happens. But this year is different. Thailand’s Prince Mahidol Award Foundation has chosen the National Human Genome Research Institute — a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)…

A University of Delaware researcher is helping people with intellectual disabilities overcome the challenges of physical fitness by developing programs specifically geared toward them. For most people, figuring out a standard exercise machine may be simple enough, but for those whose condition causes an intellectual disability, such as fragile…

During Autism Awareness Month in April, the nonprofit FRAXA Research Foundation and shoelace company U-Lace established a new partnership to help fund research for the treatment and cure of fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of autism. The partnership will begin with special marketing programs and the development of custom,…