Pick any two humans on Earth and analysis will show that their DNA is around 99.9% identical. But that tiny 0.1% difference, in combination with our environment, is what makes us unique. We each have a singular experience of the world—the interactions we have, the food we eat, the diseases we suffer. In this final webinar in our 2021 series on rare diseases, we will take a critical look at the importance of understanding our rarity and uniqueness as a way to understand the human condition, our needs, and health. We will explore the importance of being “rare” and move past our innate desire for homogeneity and the comfort of conformity, to embrace heterogeneity and difference. Valuing differences is a pathway to growth and progress as individuals and societies. Having explored the unique challenges of people with rare diseases, might we argue that all disease is unique for the person who endures it?

With:

Ioannis Thomas Pavlidis, Ph.D. (University of Houston, Houston, Texas)

Inês Pires Santos Ramos Pinheiro, Ph.D. (Institut Curie, Paris, France)

Judith S. Kaur, M.D. (Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida)

Terrence Forrester, M.D., Ph.D. (The University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica)

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