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A longtime financial executive in Boston, Massachusetts, drawing on a career that has spanned nearly four decades, Warren Lammert serves as the chief investment officer at Granite Point Capital. In addition to these endeavors, Warren B Lammert is a co-founder and chairman of Tevard Biosciences, a business exploring gene treatments for rare medical conditions such as Dravet syndrome.
Dravet syndrome (DS) is a rare disease called polymorphic epilepsy of infancy or severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy and is characterized by frequent episodes of prolonged seizures. This is a more aggressive form of epilepsy as other symptoms of DS include cognitive impairment, developmental delay, sleep disturbances, poor coordination (ataxia), and abnormally low muscle tone.
For the most part, medications designed to treat epilepsy cannot help manage DS. Some patients' seizures hardly respond to such medications. Even if the seizure is suppressed with medication, the associated neurological detriment resulting in cognitive impairments cannot be treated with such drugs.
Over the years, researchers have developed medications for these rare forms of severe seizures. These drugs are designed to prevent some of the symptoms, and they have to be taken regularly. Most DS patients take medicines more than four times daily.
Since medications prove to be partially reliable, finding a cure that targets the underlying mechanisms of the disease is necessary to combat DS. Scientists are turning to more advanced and rigorous forms of potential therapy, with gene therapy taking the spotlight.
