View clinical trials related to Rare Diseases.
Filter by:To evaluate the outcome of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using targeted busulfan, fludarabine conditioning regimen in genetic rare disease
Kallmann syndrome (KS), also known as congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (CHH), is a rare endocrine disorder that is characterized by failure to undergo puberty combined with infertility. KS/CHH patients face a number of psychosocial burdens related to delays in diagnosis, inadequate access to expert care, and lack of information about the condition. As such, there is some evidence to suggest that KS/CHH patients have unmet health needs. This study aims to identify the needs of patients and understand the issues that must be overcome to achieve improved health and quality of life.
The purpose of this study is to identify the biochemical/genetic defects in erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP). People with EPP have skin sensitivity to sunlight and occasionally develop liver disease. In this study, the investigators hope to learn the nature of the biochemical/genetic defects in EPP because this may help explain the severity of these clinical features.
The birth of a child with a disorder of sex development (DSD) is stressful for parents and members of the healthcare team. The "right" decisions about gender assignment (is it a boy? a girl?) and the best course of action (e.g., should there be surgery? what kind? when?) are not obvious. While there have been large advances in diagnostic assessments like genetic and endocrine testing, the tests do not always show what caused the DSD. And, even when the tests do reveal an explanation for the DSD, knowing what happened genetically or hormonally does not usually lead to a single "correct" treatment plan. Instead, it is likely that there are different acceptable treatment options - and parents will need to make decisions based, in part, on their personal preferences, values, and cultural background. Adding more stress to the situation is knowledge that many of the decisions that need to be made by parents early in a child's life are irreversible and exert life-long consequences for the child and the family. To support parents becoming actively involved in making such decisions, and to reduce the likelihood of future worry and regret about decisions that have been made, the investigators will create a decision support tool (DST). The DST will help educate families about typical and atypical sex development of the body, the process by which DSD are diagnosed (especially how to interpret genetic test results), and possible relationships between diagnostic/genetic testing, decisions about care, and known consequences of those decisions on their child and entire family. The DST will be used by parents of young children together with their child's health care provider. The investigators will bring together a network of researchers, health care providers, representatives of patient support and advocacy organizations, and parents of children with DSD to share their experiences. Participants of this network will be involved at each stage of creating the DST, revising it, and putting it into practice. At the end of this project, the investigators will have a fully formed DST that will be available for parents to use with their child's healthcare team as they are first learning their child may have a DSD.
CoRDS, or the Coordination of Rare Diseases at Sanford, is based at Sanford Research in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It provides researchers with a centralized, international patient registry for all rare diseases. This program allows patients and researchers to connect as easily as possible to help advance treatments and cures for rare diseases. The CoRDS team works with patient advocacy groups, individuals and researchers to help in the advancement of research in over 7,000 rare diseases. The registry is free for patients to enroll and researchers to access. Visit sanfordresearch.org/CoRDS to enroll.
This research is being done to learn more about possible genetic causes of currently undiagnosed conditions, and to find out how the development of new technologies, such as DNA sequencing, can increase knowledge of the role genetic variants play in disorders and possibly how genetic variants may help de-termine the best treatment options. The recent development of new technologies has increased our ability to understand how genetic mutations are associated with disease. Using these technologies to find the genetic variants responsible for rare diseases is a rapidly growing field and has already begun to transform the way conditions with unknown causes are diagnosed and treated. Hypothesis: Identification of new genomic variants associated with idiopathic diseases and/or diseases of unknown etiology will advance medical knowledge about rare and common diseases.
Even though rare disorders usually have limited case numbers, they have induced huge impacts on patients and their families, and has heavily burdened on our society and healthcare system as well. Therefore, it is essential to detect the occurrence of disorders and thus take appropriate measures as early as possible. The preventive goal is based on comprehensive understanding on rare disorders, available diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. However, studies related to rare disorders are often impeded by limited sample sizes and infrequent exchange of research materials among institutes. After referring to foreign experiences, the investigators have noticed that a non-profit tissue bank which can reposit biological samples and thus provide researchers access to samples, may be a solution. Through sharing this public asset, the investigators believe not only quantity and quality of rare disorder studies will be improved, the collaboration between various research institutes can also be strengthened afterwards. Most important of all, those achievements can ultimately benefit patients, families and the whole society.
Background: - A number of rare inherited diseases affect only a few patients, and the genetic causes of these conditions remain unknown. Researchers are studying the use of a new technology called whole genome sequencing to learn which gene or genes cause these conditions. Understanding the genes that cause these diseases is important to improve diagnosis and treatment of affected patients. Objectives: - To identify the genetic cause of disorders that are difficult to identify with existing techniques. - To develop best practices for the medical and counseling challenges of whole genome sequencing. Eligibility: - Individuals who have one of the rare disorders under consideration in this study. These conditions are generally those in which the genetic cause of the disorder is unknown. The eligibility of most individual participants will be decided on a case-by-case basis by the researchers. - Family members of affected individuals, if that family member (often a parent) may provide genetic information. Design: - Participants in this study will have at least one and in some cases several of the following procedures: - A medical genetics evaluation. - Other tests that may include x-rays, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams, and consultations with other doctors. Not all studies are necessary for each person, but the information from the tests may be required to proceed with some of our gene sequencing studies. - Clinical photographs to document certain aspects of the disorder. - Blood and skin biopsy samples, or other tissue samples, as required by the study doctors. - Genetic testing, as decided by the researchers. However, most participants in this study can expect to undergo whole genome sequencing, which is a technique to study all of a person s genes. - Some participants may be asked to take part in a telephone interview and/or a web-based survey. - Participants will have choices about what kinds of results from whole genome sequencing they wish to learn. - After the tests have been completed and the results of the genetic studies are known, participants will be offered a return visit to the National Institutes of Health to learn these results. During this visit, participants will be asked to complete surveys and participate in interviews related to their decisions to participate in the study and to learn individual genetic test results.
Exploratory study to examine the effect(s) of Imatinib mesylate treatment on life threatening rare diseases with known associations to one or more Imatinib mesylate -sensitive tyrosine kinases, and to identify the contribution of specific protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) of that specific disease.