Forest Ray PhD,  —

The Scleroderma Foundation has awarded eight research grants for projects seeking to advance personalized medicine, lab-grown skin, new therapeutic targets, and more, in the field of scleroderma research. “The proposals from these scientists received the highest ranking from the Peer Review committee for quality of scientific design and…

Low levels of the galectin-10 protein (Gal-10) in scleroderma patients associate with inflammation and vascular changes in the lungs, leading to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). This finding, from a recent study, provides the first evidence that GAL-10 may play a role in scleroderma. The study, “A…

The Anna Belle Carter Memorial Foundation (ABCMF) is offering scholarships to students living with scleroderma and their siblings who remain under the care of their parents and guardians. Recipients can apply their ABCMF scholarships toward undergraduate degrees, initial graduate degrees, or certifications at accredited colleges, universities, and…

The two COVID-19 vaccines that recently received emergency approval from the U.S. and other worldwide regulatory agencies are expected to pose little risk to the rare disease community, including to patients with compromised immune systems or those participating in gene therapy studies. That was the message of a recent…

The U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to ACE-1334, an investigational therapy that aims to ease scarring in the lungs of people with scleroderma. Acceleron Pharma, the company developing ACE-1334, plans to launch a Phase 1b/2 clinical trial next year,…

Same But Different, a U.K. nonprofit that uses the arts to bring communities together, is holding a calendar photography competition to raise awareness for rare diseases. Under the theme “A Glimmer of Hope,” the competition is a means to “visually express the hope that exists for people affected by…

Raremark, an online rare disease patient community, has launched a digital platform called Xperiome, aimed at streamlining the search for new medicines for rare disorders and incorporating more patient input into research. The goal is to help the pharmaceutical industry deliver innovative new therapies faster and smarter, the…

People with scleroderma who lack disease-related autoantibodies show a clinically distinct profile, which includes younger age at disease onset, and differences in skin thickness and the proportion of patients with diffuse disease, a Japanese study has found. The study, “Clinical features of Japanese systemic sclerosis…

Pneumonia and sepsis are the most common serious infections among scleroderma patients needing hospitalization in the U.S., a study reports. Its findings also show that while the length of time these people remains in a hospital dropped slightly from 1998 to 2016, their hospital charges rose considerably. The study,…

The first patients have been dosed in a Phase 2a clinical trial of EHP-101, Emerald Health Pharmaceuticals‘ investigational cannabidiol-derived treatment for diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis (dcSSc), the company announced. So far, the randomized, placebo-controlled trial (NCT04166552) has…