Accelerating Rare Disease Innovation: HackRare at World Orphan Drug Congress USA 2026

On behalf of Harvard Undergraduate Rare Diseases (HURD) and HackRare, Allison Wu and Nicholas Dang were excited to attend the World Orphan Drug Congress USA 2026 this past Wednesday.

Together, they presented their poster, “Accelerating Rare Disease Innovation Through a Harvard Hackathon” (Allison C. Wu, Adithya Madduri, Nicholas H. Dang, Timothy Guan), sharing how HackRare fosters collaboration, creativity, and innovation in the rare disease community.

The conference was a valuable opportunity to learn more about orphan drug development and ways to improve access to life-saving therapies for rare disease patients. We were especially excited to hear HackRare judge Julieta Bonvin Sallago, MD, MS, CCRP speak about optimizing clinical trials for the rare disease space. We also enjoyed connecting with other rare disease researchers, industry leaders, patients, and advocates including Nancy and David from Breath of Hope RI.

Allison and Nick are grateful for this experience at the World Orphan Drug Congress!