The future of biomarker development in rare disease

CNS Biomarkers. In the last two days, our team attended the Workshop for Multimodal Biomarkers in CNS Disorders held at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC. This conference provided a needed review of the current state of multimodal biomarker discovery and development. While most of the speakers focused on more common CNS disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and neuropsychiatric disorders, there stands to be important lessons that can be translated into the rare disease field. Here is what we learned about the clinical utility of biomarkers and their potential as we move towards precision medicine in rare disease.

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Phenotypes are like water – Rare Disease Day 2023

Phases. Today is Rare Disease Day. I would like to use this opportunity to explain some of the phenotype science that is critical for rare diseases. In contrast to common disorders, rare diseases face an unusual challenge. Once identified, the overall rareness of these condition poses the question of where phenotypes begin and where they end. For rare genetic disorders, is the phenotype of the first individual identified with a rare disease characteristic, or is there a larger spectrum that we should be aware of? Enter the various approaches to phenotype science that aim to decipher the full depth of clinical features associated with rare diseases. In order to understand the various approaches to rare diseases phenotypes, I would like to suggest a somewhat unusual analogy: phenotypes are like water.

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