The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently announced that it has funded six new specialized consortia to be part of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN), which now includes a total of 22 research consortia. The RDCRN was launched in 2003 to advance  research and medical treatments for rare diseases by facilitating collaboration, study enrollment and data sharing. The network is composed of about 2,600 researchers from NIH, academic institutions and 98 patient advocacy groups. Ninety-one studies are underway.

NIH funds to expand the program total about $29 million in fiscal year 2014.  For more details on the program and new research areas, see the full NIH press release: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2014/ncats-08.htm