image: Representatives from the University of Minnesota and Wasie Foundation.
Credit: University of Minnesota.
The University of Minnesota and M Health Fairview’s Rare Disease Center of Excellence recently received $500,000 from the Wasie Foundation to support rare disease research and patients. The gift will fund small pilot grants for rare disease research and assist families with the costs of genetic testing to identify rare diseases and obtain a diagnosis in a timelier manner.
“This extraordinary commitment from The Wasie Foundation allows us to fast-track innovative research that will help us continue to uncover answers for patients who have waited far too long for a diagnosis,” said Susan Berry, MD, a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and physician with M Health Fairview. She is also the director of the Rare Disease Center of Excellence. “It’s a game changer in helping us close the gap between discovery and care.”
The University of Minnesota Medical School, College of Pharmacy and M Health Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital’s joint designation as a Rare Disease Center of Excellence recognizes expertise in diagnosing, treating and researching rare diseases. At the University, researchers are working on everything from basic disease biology, first-in-human studies and clinical trials and biomarker discovery of predictors for outcomes after treatment of rare diseases.
“This funding will be crucial in helping families affected by rare diseases get diagnoses, which can lead to a better understanding of these conditions and how to provide the best care,” said Paul Orchard, professor at the U of M Medical School and blood and marrow transplant physician with M Health Fairview.
The Wasie Foundation has supported medical discovery for over 50 years, helping University of Minnesota researchers and clinicians boldly advance innovative, life-changing care for patients with rheumatic and autoimmune disease, as well as epidermolysis bullosa (EB) and schizophrenia.
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About the University of Minnesota Medical School
The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu.