Rare Care Podcast

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Jason Sicklick, MD, FACS, an expert on gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), ahead of July 13, GIST Awareness Day. Dr. Sicklick's laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms of GIST development and drug resistance in advanced GIST.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Kattayoun Kordy, MD, senior director of rare disease clinical development/immunology at Janssen. She discusses her company's clinical trials for nipocalimab, an intravenous infusion that aims to treat hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN).

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Denise Scots-Knight, PhD. Her UK-based company, Mereo BioPharma, is developing therapies for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews psychologist Al Freedman, PhD, whose late son Jack had spinal muscular atrophy. Dr. Freedman specializes in counseling families of those affected by rare disease.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Kim Smith-Whitley, MD, a pediatric hematologist and top Pfizer execuive specializing in the treatment of sickle cell disease.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Jason Tardio, chief operating officer at Ovid Therapeutics,

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Jennifer MacDonald—who has alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency— about the difficulties of being a rare disease patient in Mexico.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Mindy Henderson, an SMA patient who is editor-in-chief of Quest, the quarterly magazine of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Christopher Curran, who along with his wife, Jessica, founded Kindness Over Muscular Dystrophy to advocate for patients like their 12-year-old son, Conner, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Leah Zelaya, a 2023 national ambassador of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The 15-year-old aspiring actress from Brooklyn, New York, has an ultra-rare form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) known as scapulopereneal SMA.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Luisa Leal, founder and CEO of The Akari Foundation, a Texas-based nonprofit that advocates on behalf of Spanish-speaking families affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews pediatric neurologist Julie Parsons, MD, of Children's Hospital Colorado in Denver. An expert on both muscular atrophy (SMA) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), Dr. Parsons discusses how the nation's healthcare system must prepare for an avalanche of Duchenne patients if and when Sarepta's gene therapy wins final approval i...

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Christopher Rosa, PhD, president and CEO of the Viscardi Group. Dr. Rosa, who has limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, is a longtime advocate for the disabled community. His chief mission now is pushing legislation that will require U.S. airlines to let disabled passengers remain in their wheelchairs during flight.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Matt Granato, president and CEO of the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, on World PH Day 2023—which takes place May 5—and the urgency of creating awareness about PAH, a frequently misdiagnosed and potentially fatal disease.

Larry Luxner, senior corespondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Ron Bartek, founding president of the Freidriech's Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA), about the hope generated by the recent FDA approval of Reata's omaveloxolone (Skyclarys)—the first-ever therapy to treat this rare neuromuscular disease.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Miranda Bradnick, the mother of 3 children with Alagille syndrome. Among her biggest concerns: how COVID-19 has changed the lives of her family and others affected by rare disease, 3 years after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Jeff Szer, BMedSc, a hematology professor at Australia's Royal Melbourne Hospital and secretary of the UK-based International PNH Interest Group, which is organizing its first-ever scientific symposium on paroxysmal nocturnal hemogloblnuria (PNH).

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Cheryl Schwartz, Takeda's senior vice-president of US rare disease business, on the recent approval of lanadelumab-flyo (Takhzyro®) for hereditary angioedema.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews John Berk, MD, director of the Boston University School of Medicine's Localized Amyloid Clinic, on the latest therapeutic options for hereditary ATTR amyloidosis.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Çem Akin, MD, a specialist in allergy and immunology at the University of Michigan, about various treatment options for systemic mastocytosis.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Dr. Abby Sandler of the National Cancer Institute.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Yale University hematologist George Goshua, MD, who has completed a cost analysis of gene therapy versus standard of care in patients with sickle cell disease.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Arushi Khurana, MBBS, a hematologist and lead author of a study showing that minorities are less likely to receive front-line therapy for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma than white patients.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Catherine Broome, MD, on the relative benefits to quality of life by treating immune thrombocytopenia patients with efgartigimod.

Larry Luxner, senior correspondent for Rare Disease Advisor, interviews Paul W. Noble, MD, director of the Women’s Guild Lung Insitute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, about his work exploring zinc as a potential therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.