Despite the name suggests, rare diseases affect about 500.000 people in Switzerland and around 300 million people worldwide, which is more than common diseases like diabetes. However, rare diseases are a highly diverse group of over 7.000 disorders, which due to the early onset of symptoms mostly occur in children. Since individual rare diseases only affect few people, they pose specific societal challenges related to therapy development and treatment access. The panel members represent biomedical, clinical, and ethics/legal/socio-economic research, as well as a first-hand patient perspective, and will discuss innovative therapies for rare diseases in the context of natural versus artificial.

Panelists:

• Prof. Dr. Janine Reichenbach, Director of University Research Priority Program ITINERARE – Innovative Therapies for Rare Diseases and professor for Somatic Gene Therapy at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IREM) at the University of Zurich
• Dr. Jasmin Barman-Aksözen, Head of the Clinical Chemistry Unit of the Stadtspital Triemli Zurich and Patient Advocate for rare diseases
• Prof. Dr. Michael Coors, Associate Professor for theological ethics and Head of the Institute of Social Ethics at the University of Zurich
• Marina Villa, Moderation