A Software Platform to Give Patients the Tools to Build Treatments for Rare Genetic Diseases

Sanath Kumar Ramesh’s son Raghav was born with an ultra-rare and progressive disorder known as SSMD. The condition is caused by mutations in the GPX4 gene. There are only a handful of known patients with GPX4 mutations. In the past, most known cases resulted in death about a month after birth. Ramesh has moved with remarkable speed to find patients, raise money, and drive research. But he also realized that many other parents of children and small, rare disease organizations must go through the same process to develop treatments for ultra-rare conditions. To guide and accelerate the work for others, Ramesh has created OpenTreatments Foundation, a nonprofit with the with a software platform to enable treatments for genetic diseases regardless of rarity or geography. OpenTreatments provides people with a road map for developing genetic medicines; connects them with researchers, clinicians and other needed to advance their programs; and helps them show their capabilities to raise funding despite the rarity of a condition. We spoke to Ramesh, founder of OpenTreatments Foundation, about how his software platform works, the need it addresses, and how it can accelerate the development of treatments for ultra-rare genetic diseases.