2020 IDDB Progress and Findings The International Dupuytren Data Bank is now in its fifth year with 4465 enrollees from 48 countries. There’s now enough data to begin looking for trends and new insights. We’ve begun collecting blood samples from select enrollees for the Dupuytren Blood Biomarker Pilot Study. Blood sample collection is on hold until […]

Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s a day to embrace all the joy that love brings to life. A day to pause and reflect on the mystery of love …and biomarkers. Love and biomarkers? Absolutely! Love is so hard to describe in words. People try with different languages, metaphors, imagery, poems, songs, and increasingly, with molecules – […]

I’m optimistic 2020 will be the year of progress solving the Dupuytren puzzle. Dupuytren seems at times a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces. Pieces from other puzzles. Pieces that look as though they should fit, but don’t. Pieces that belong in one location, but seem to fit in many different locations. One strategy to […]

Dupuytren Research Group Outreach and Awareness programs have reached a new milestone: 1000 subscribers to Dupuytren.tv, the Dupuytren Research Group video podcast / YouTube channel. It’s actually a big deal: we don’t feature cats or dogs, cute babies, social media influencers, hot spokesmodels, “one weird trick” clickbait, video game reviews, celebrities behaving badly, or other […]

Happy Birthday, Dupuytren! It may not seem that long ago, but Guillaume Dupuytren was born just 242 years ago today on Oct. 5, 1777. Dupuytren disease goes by his name because of the lecture he gave and the surgery he performed for this condition at Hôpital-Dieu in Paris on the 5th of December 1831, just […]

I just returned from the 2019 Global Genes Rare Advocacy Summit with the Rare Champion of Hope award in the category of science. It was one of the most exciting and inspirational meetings I’ve attended, filled with successful disease advocates, brilliant researchers, and leaders in genomic and advocacy technologies. What I learned there will change […]

Why isn’t there a drug for Dupuytren already? You might hear that surgeons don’t want a Dupuytren cure because it’s so profitable – but take it from a hand surgeon: if Dupuytren disappeared today, surgeons would be happier than patients: no one will miss Dupuytren. So why isn’t there a drug to slow down or […]

On July 10th and 11th, the Dupuytren Research Group went to Washington DC. We visited offices of Congressional representatives and other organizations to raise awareness about the impact of Dupuytren disease and the need for federal funding of Dupuytren research. Right now, there are no federal funds directed specifically for Dupuytren research – not at […]

Is Dupuytren disease common or rare? I recently attended the Rare Drug Development Symposium in Philadelphia. Why? Is Dupuytren really a rare disease? Yes and no. Mild Dupuytren is common but very severe Dupuytren is rare – in the same way that cats are common but chimeric cats with crazy colors are rare. What does […]