FRAXA Biotech Games™ brings together the biotech community to network in a friendly setting, form new relationships and potential collaborations while raising money for a great cause! This year’s event will be a virtual competition in online trivia and team building games among biotech companies from Boston to San Francisco, and including other biotech hubs such as NY/NJ, Capitol region, San Diego and more.
FRAXA Biotech Games™, a gathering of Boston area biotech companies to network in a friendly setting, and form new relationships and potential collaborations while raising money for Fragile X research, is adapting its 2020 event to maintain its commitment to Fragile X and autism research while prioritizing the health and safety of its contestants and volunteers. The organization’s traditional annual event will be transformed into an online interactive experience September 9-11, 2020.
As many of you might have guessed, the 2020 FRAXA Biotech Games had to shift this year to a virtual event. However, the commitment was still there. Throughout the month of September, 39 teams of 4 took time out of their busy schedules to come together every Thursday to connect and show their support for Fragile X research.
On September 20, 2018, FRAXA Research Foundation held the First Annual FRAXA Biotech Games™. The event was a “friendly” competition between greater Boston biotech companies and affiliated industry partners and vendors in a series of fun backyard lawn games. 42 teams of 4 players each played cornhole, KanJam, ladder golf and bucketball. Our goal was to establish an annual event in Cambridge, MA, that would unite the biotech community for an afternoon of fun competition, and raise money for biomedical research. We look forward to the upcoming Biotech Games!
The FRAXA Biotech Games exploded onto Cambridge Crossing with a capacity crowd. What was immediately obvious was the genuine camaraderie and mutual support of the biotech community and its many vendors to help raise awareness of and funds for research on Fragile X, the most common inherited cause of autism and intellectual disabilities.
Recently Laurie Bowler and her 19-year-old son Casey, who has Fragile X syndrome, visited FRAXA research grant recipient Dr. Tue Banke at his University of Washington laboratory. We hope you enjoy Laurie’s wonderful description of their adventure! FRAXA awarded $90,000 to Dr. Banke to study the Developmental Profile of Glutamatergic Synapses in Fragile X.
In a placebo-controlled clinical trial, some participants are given an experimental medication, while others are given a placebo. Participants do not know whether they are taking medicine or placebo. In theory, this can allow researchers to rule out the placebo effect by comparing outcomes among the two groups. But, per Wexler (2020) “having a strong placebo effect can obscure any real effect of the therapy being investigated”.