Support the Stevenson Family Campaign

As we tentatively and joyfully begin to emerge from the recent health crisis, it’s awe-inspiring to reflect on how we’ve all benefited from the world’s top scientists coming together to develop vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. That same passion for innovative science motivates us now more than ever to support brain research that could dramatically improve the lives of those coping with Fragile X syndrome.

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Repurposing FDA-Approved Drugs to Treat Major Depressive Disorder in Fragile X Syndrome

Did you know that depression is more common in those with autism and/or Fragile X? Even more disturbing is the discovery that current treatments for depression do not work in Fragile X mice. With this grant, the team will work to develop a rapid screening tool to identify FDA-approved drugs which can treat depression in people with Fragile X syndrome.

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How FRAXA Prioritizes Research, Explained

Dr. Mike Tranfaglia explains how FRAXA prioritizes research and the importance of looking at research from multiple angles. “It’s not either-or. It’s not we have a definitive treatment or we have a new drug treatment or we have a repurposing treatment. We can have all of those things, mixed or matched, in a personalized medicine kind of way and I think that’s what we’re headed for.”

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What FRAXA Is Excited about in the Upcoming Fragile X Research Grants, Explained

Dr. Mike Tranfaglia shares what FRAXA is excited about as we work through reviewing all of the submitted Fragile X research grant applications. We find it especially exciting that so many new clinical trials are starting right now, as our major emphasis is getting the drugs and other treatment strategies that we have tested in the Fragile X mouse model to patients in clinical trials.

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Exploring Drug Repurposing to Restore Hippocampal Function in FXS Mouse Models

A gene’s job is to produce a protein. In Fragile X syndrome, the FMR1 gene is mutated and cannot make FMRP, a protein which shapes connections between nerve cells (neurons) in the brain. These connections are the basis of learning and memory. This team has discovered a mechanism involving FMRP that is absolutely essential to control the connections between neurons. These connections are the basis of learning and memory. They will now test available drugs which directly target this mechanism, to see if they can treat Fragile X syndrome.

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Beneath the Surface of Fragile X Syndrome: Study Sheds Light on What’s Happening in Nerve Cells

This FRAXA-funded project has turned up some surprising results. At first, it might seem Kurosaki and Maquat have found yet another cellular process which is malfunctioning in Fragile X. But this finding is intimately related to previous findings of abnormal protein synthesis and misregulated transcription in Fragile X. FMRP (the protein lacking in Fragile X syndrome) is involved in chaperoning messenger RNAs within cells to active sites, and in controlling their translation into many different proteins. Some of these proteins are transcription factors, which feed back to the nucleus to control gene expression.

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Drug Repurposing for Rare Disease and the Future of Health – The Genetics Podcast

In this double-bill episode of The Genetics Podcast, Dr. Patrick Short talks to two key rare disease researchers in the field: Dr. Bruce Bloom, CCO of Healx, and Dr. Mike Tranfaglia, CSO of FRAXA. Both draw on their wide-ranging personal and professional experiences to discuss the successes and opportunities of drug repurposing, the power of using machine learning, and the work they’ve been doing to aid in finding effective treatments for Fragile X.

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Considering Available Drugs for Fragile X: My Favorite Combination (So Far)

Which of the available drugs are best for fragile X? We tend to think of drugs according to their primary activity in the body, but very few drugs are totally selective and specific. There are differences between drugs in any given class, and these differences may be critical. Most drugs have “off-target” effects which are usually considered side effects, and it is these side effects which can have key advantages, in some cases.

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Healx Raises $56M to use AI to Find Treatments for Fragile X & Other Rare Diseases

Healx has secured $56M in new financing to build a clinical-stage portfolio for rare diseases, including treatments for Fragile X syndrome, and to launch a global Rare Treatment Accelerator program. Where the traditional drug discovery model takes more than a decade and can run into the billions of dollars, Healx’s AI-driven approach makes the process faster, more efficient and cost-effective.

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Takeaways from Fragile X Advocacy Day

In the first week of March I attended my first Fragile X Advocacy Day to meet with many of the Massachusetts delegation to Congress. While this was my first time advocating for Fragile X research, I’ve been a longtime lung cancer research advocate and have met with many of the same representatives in the past. It was a pleasure to meet with many of the families as my participation in Advocacy Day was in the spirit of “we are all in this together”.

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Repurposing Study II: Evaluating Combinations of Drugs to Treat Fragile X

Healx team 2018

FRAXA Research Foundation initially partnered with Healx in 2016 to identify existing drugs with potential to treat Fragile X syndrome, using machine learning algorithms and computational biology.  The study produced results, and now FRAXA and Healx have launched a new round of studies to evaluate combinations of compounds, including both drugs and natural products.

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Drug Repurposing Study Results Accelerate Progress Towards Fragile X Treatments

Healx team David, Dan, Narissa - FRAXA (1)

While there are over 8,000 rare diseases affecting an estimated 350 million people worldwide, only around 200 of these conditions have effective treatments. Due to the high cost of developing new drugs, rare diseases have historically been less attractive to pharmaceutical companies. Drug repurposing systematically leverages the detailed information available on approved drugs and reduces the time and money needed to deliver safe “new” treatments, but with greater success rates and a potentially more immediate impact on health care.

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