Readable Research is proud to be working with LifeArc who are making life science life changing.
LifeArc is a not-for-profit medical research organisation which is leading the way for change in rare diseases and supports promising initiatives in global health.
On 12th May 2026, the LifeArc Translational Science Summit in London convened 700 stakeholders from research, healthcare, industry, investment, policy and the patient community to focus on one shared challenge: how to turn scientific discovery into real‑world benefit for patients, faster.
Readable Research was there to hear about these opportunities with Marianne King and Kate Matheson from our team there to report back on the work presented. Here are their four lay summaries:
Using Gene Therapy to Treat Rare Diseases
Gene therapy is a term used to describe treatments that try to correct faulty genes that cause disease. These treatments can be wide-ranging and the talks also included a more speculative approach that considered the future of gene therapy.
Personalised and Bespoke Medicines for People Living with Rare Diseases
These talks and discussions focussed on the need to develop medicines to fit groups of people in a more specific way. The talks ranged from developing cancer drugs for children and the problems with current regulations around rare diseases. There was also discussion about the challenges involved in diagnosing people whose diseases share common symptoms.
Discovering and Treating New Targets in Disease
Discovering new treatment targets in disease can be very time consuming and challenging for researchers. These talks looked at some of the ways researchers are trying to improve the way we find potential treatment targets in disease, in addition to some current research taking place in Alzheimer’s disease.
Patient and Public Perceptions of Data Research
To understand more about diseases and therefore create new treatments, researchers require a lot of patient information. For example, researchers may wish to know whether certain genes (parts of the DNA passed down to us by our parents that determine our characteristics e.g. hair colour) are mutated in patients with the disease they are studying. This panel discussion focused on the perceptions of the use of this data.
About LifeArc
LifeArc is a not-for-profit medical research organisation which is leading the way for change in rare diseases and supports promising initiatives in global health.
They help ensure great science achieves its potential and reaches patients faster.
One of the ways they achieve that is through brilliant communication – of vital research, why it matters and where it could lead.
That is exactly our aim here at Readable Research and is why they are partnering with the team to ensure crucial science is made accessible to all.
We look forward to working together to achieve our shared ambition – to improve lives, support understanding and the development of treatments, and remove the barriers that prevent promising discoveries from reaching people with rare diseases around the world.
You can read much more about LifeArc on their website or watch more in the video below >>