The Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) includes six additional clinical sites in addition to the original NIH UDP: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston; Duke Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, with Columbia University, New York City; Harvard Teaching Hospitals (Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital), Boston; Stanford Medical Center, Stanford, California; University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center; and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee.

A newly launched online portal could offer a first step for patients who suffer from conditions that have long eluded diagnosis. Known as the Undiagnosed Disease Network (UDN) Gateway, the portal allows patients to apply quickly and easily to a research study funded by the National Institutes of Health Common Fund. Patients whose applications are accepted will have access to leading diagnostic teams of physicians and researchers from clinical sites across the country, including BWH.

BWH is part of the Harvard Clinical Site, one of six clinical sites that comprise the UDN. The center represents a collaboration between BWH, Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital and seeks to ascertain and characterize undiagnosed diseases in adults and children through careful clinical evaluation, genetic and genomic analysis, environmental exposure analysis, metabolic studies, systems biology and more.

“Here in Boston, we have enormous potential to help these patients by uniting the leading experts from these world-class institutions to bring the latest in medical knowledge and technologies to bear on these difficult cases,” said Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Medicine and principle investigator of the new center.

“The UDN aims to improve the level of diagnosis and care for patients with undiagnosed diseases,” said Anastasia Wise, PhD, program director, NHGRI Division of Genomic Medicine and co-coordinator for the NIH Common Fund’s Undiagnosed Diseases Network. “Based upon the experience of the NIH UDP, we know that the need and potential are great. The UDN Gateway will expand our ability to connect with patients who may benefit from the UDN. We want to make it as easy as possible for patients and their families to apply to participate in the network.”

For access to the UDN Gateway, go to apply.undiagnosed.hms.harvard.edu

For more information about the UDN, including related funding announcements, visit http://commonfund.nih.gov/Diseases/index