Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre Symposium 2022

September 23, 2022

The Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre (OHC) hosted its 2022 Symposium from 13 to 15 September at Pembroke College, Oxford.

We were delighted to welcome in person 150 delegates from academia, industry and other stakeholders in rare disease therapeutics development.

The plenary talk was presented by Mano Manoharan, an internationally leading figure in oligonucleotide therapies. Rare Disease experts from pharmaceutical companies presented recent developments, including Moderna, Pfizer and Roche, as well as Solid Biosciences, Evox Therapeutics, PepGen, Edgewise Therapeutics, Oxford Biomedica, and Silence Therapeutics. Academics from UK institutions including University of Oxford, University of Birmingham and University College London also presented their latest rare disease therapeutics development programs.

We were also given a showcase of Genomics England’s National Genomics Research Library Research Environment and heard from international speakers from Harvard Medical School and National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute.

A thought-provoking panel discussion addressed newborn screening in the transformation of rare disease therapeutics, with key stakeholder opinions provided by Laurent Servais (Professor of Paediatric Neuromuscular Diseases, Oxford), Amanda Mortensen (CEO of Batten Disease Family Association), David Bick (Principal Clinician of Newborn Genomes Programme, Genomics England) and Ian Smith (Screening Laboratory and Point of Care Testing Manager at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust). 

Delegates took advantage of the poster session, lunch and conference dinner to engage in knowledge exchange and forge important collaborations to accelerate rare disease therapeutics development. 

We look forward to hosting the next OHC Symposium in September 2024, details of which will be listed on the Events section of our website in due course.