Uncommon Cures
Uncommon Cures
Require An Uncommon Approach
Uncommon Cures Require An Uncommon Approach

Clinical Trial Innovation

More About Us
Helping kid. Two doctors in white coats is in the clinic working together
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Years of
Combined Research
Experience

Introducing Uncommon Cures

Revolutionizing Rare Disease Clinical Research

Welcome to Uncommon Cures, LLC, a trailblazing boutique rare disease clinical trial program dedicated to revolutionizing the way clinical trials for rare diseases are conducted. Our mission is to accelerate the development and delivery of life-changing treatments for patients with rare diseases by streamlining the clinical trial process, reducing costs, and prioritizing patient well-being.
  • Innovation
  • Patient-Centricity
  • Collaboration
  • Integrity
  • Diversity
  • Inclusion
Our Approach Or What We Do
Uncommon Cures Require Uncommon Thinking

Our Dual Approach

Our unique dual approach combines the centralization of high-risk clinical operations and the decentralization of low-risk clinical operations. This strategy streamlines processes, reduces costs, and maintains the highest quality of patient care throughout the clinical trial lifecycle.

Centralize High-risk Clinical Operations at a Single Location

  • Extensive rare disease clinical and clinical trial expertise
  • Pre- and post-approval services
  • On-site, full-service hotel and transportation solution to facilitate participation
  • One contract, one IRB, one PI, one team!
  • Facility near major medical specialty centers, the NIH, the FDA and three major airports.

De-centralize Low-Risk Clinical Operations to Home-Based Solutions

  • Extensive rare disease clinical and clinical trial expertise
  • Pre- and post-approval services
  • On-site, full-service hotel and transportation solution to facilitate participation
  • One contract, one IRB, one PI, one team!
  • Facility near major medical specialty centers, the NIH, the FDA and three major airports.
  • Partner to optimize efficiencies and cost-savings for study and post-marketing periods
  • Telehealth platform
  • Remote monitoring via wearables
  • On-schedule and on-demand laboratory and other diagnostic home delivery
  • Immediate secure connection to cloud-based EMR
  • Partner to optimize efficiencies and cost-savings for study and post-marketing periods
  • Telehealth platform
  • Remote monitoring via wearables
  • On-schedule and on-demand laboratory and other diagnostic home delivery
  • Immediate secure connection to cloud-based EMR
Pioneering Rare Disease Clinical Research Solutions

What We Do

Rare Disease Study Design

Tailoring innovative, patient-centric strategies for efficient, impactful Rare Disease clinical trials.

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Clinical Trial - Data Collection Study

Harnessing advanced technology to optimize accurate, secure, and efficient data gathering in clinical trials.

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Subject Screening For Clinical Trial

Rigorous, ethical, and efficient screening processes to identify the ideal candidates for successful outcomes.

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In House Clinical Trial (No External Facilities)

Comprehensive, fully-integrated clinical trials within our state-of-the-art facilities for seamless, efficient, and high-quality research outcomes.

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Clinical Trial With Facilities (External Complex)

Collaborating with specialized, cutting-edge external facilities to expand capabilities and enhance the quality and scope of clinical research outcomes.

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Post Marketing Study

Monitoring and evaluating the safety, efficacy, and real-world performance of approved therapies to ensure ongoing patient benefits.

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Research Experts

Meet Our Leaders

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Marshall Summar, MD

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Summar is well-known for his pioneering work in caring for children diagnosed with rare diseases. He is now the Chief Executive Officer of Uncommon Cures, LLC, a rare disease clinical trials company focused on physically consolidating trials and using innovative technology to reduce time and cost. 

Our Executive Team

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Rob Freishtat, MD, MPH
President

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Tamanna Roshan Lal, MB ChB
Chief Medical Officer

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Wendy Sclafani
VP of Clinical Operations

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Kerri Gallagher
Director of Nursing

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Tom Moreno
Chief Information Officer

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Christiana Bakare
Director of Business Operations

Our Board of Directors

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Simon Frost

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Thomas D. O'Malley Jr

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Andrew Lo, PHD
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Years of Combined Experience
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Major Airports Nearby
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The Latest and Greatest from Uncommon Cures

What's New?

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10 Mar

Uncommon Cures, LLC Begins Operations With Series A Funding To Bring Cost-Effective And Time-Efficient Clinical Trials To The Rare Disease Field. 

Uncommon Cures, LLC, a privately held rare disease clinical research organization (CRO), begins operations after completing its Series A financing…
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15 Mar

Uncommon Curess, LLC Is Please To Announce That Dr. Tam Roshan Lal Has Joined The Company As Chief Medical Officer.

For Immediate Release Uncommon Cures, LLC is pleased to announce that Dr. Tam Roshan Lal has joined the company as…
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Discover how Uncommon Cures can transform your rare disease clinical research.

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Uncommon Cures is a trailblazing boutique clinical research organization (CRO) specializing in innovative, patient-centric solutions for rare disease clinical trials to accelerate the development and delivery of life-changing treatments.

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Marshall Summar, MD

Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Summar is well-known for his pioneering work in caring for children diagnosed with rare diseases. He is now the Chief Executive Officer of Uncommon Cures, LLC, a rare disease clinical trials company focused on physically consolidating trials and using innovative technology to reduce time and cost. He joined Children’s National in 2010 where he founded and led the Rare Disease Institute the first dedicated home for the clinical care of patients with genetic rare diseases and The National Organization for Rare Disorders first designated Rare Disease Clinical Center of Excellence. He stepped down as RDI Director in 2022 to launch Uncommon Cures and tackle some of the long-standing issues around cost and execution of rare disease clinical trials.

Dr. Summar’s research has led to over 170 peer-reviewed publications. His work has resulted in new therapies for patients with sickle cell anemia, organic acidemias, congenital heart disease and premature birth with several FDA ongoing trials. He has over 100 international patents.

Dr. Summar is board-certified in Pediatrics, Clinical Genetics, and Biochemical Genetics. He served as President of the Board of Directors of the National Organization for Rare Disorders and is the past president of the Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders. At NORD he was part of the effort that created digital registries for families (IAMRARE) and the NORD Clinical Centers of Excellence program. He serves on the Board or Advisory Committees of: The Black Women’s Health Imperative Rare Disease Diversity Coalition, PHLOW Pharmaceuticals, NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Hemoshear Therapeutics, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, the ACMG Public Policy Committee, NORD’s Public Policy Committee, the Advisory Board of the Swiss URPP ITINERARE, and others. In 2022, Dr. Summar was awarded NORD’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in Rare Disease.

Rob Freishtat, MD, MPH

President

Dr. Rob Freishtat, MD, MPH is Physician-executive with a combined 20+ years of leadership and experience in emergency management of rare disease patients, scientific research, and biotechnology business development. Formerly, Dr. Freishtat was the Chief Biotechnology Officer at Children’s National Hospital and Interim Director of the Center for Genetic Medicine Research of the Children’s National Research Institute in Washington, DC, USA. Prior to that he was the Chief of Emergency Medicine where he led the successful implementation of acute management protocols for rare disease emergencies. He was also a Professor with Tenure in Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine, and Genomics and Precision Medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Freishtat’s research was continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for over two decades, including international collaboratives studying intercellular communication in organ injury/repair. He is the author of over 150 articles and book chapters in the fields of metabolism, obesity, lung disease, and emergency medicine.

Tamanna Roshan Lal, MB ChB

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Roshan Lal, is a triple board certified physician who is the Chief Medical Officer of Uncommon Cures. Prior to joining Uncommon Cure, she worked as an Attending Metabolic Geneticist at the Rare Disease Institute (RDI), Childrens National Hospital and was an Assistant Professor of George Washington University . During her time at the RDI, she was the Director of Clinical Trials, Director of International Patient Consultation and Care Referrals as well as Director of the Genomic Therapeutic Clinics. She completed her medical education at University of Manchester, UK. She went on to train in multiple specialties which include Pediatrics, Obstetrics & Gynecology, General Medicine, General Surgery as well as Critical Care. She furthered her training in Pediatrics, prior to moving to the United States with her husband, a US Marine. Dr Roshan Lal completed a Pediatric Residency at Sinai Hospital, Baltimore and went on to do a Genetics fellowship at Johns Hopkins. She concurrently did research on lysosomal storage diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She served as the Chief Resident of the Genetics department at Johns Hopkins prior to completing a fellowship in Medical Biochemical Genetics at the same institute. She has achieved numerous awards during her time as a fellow which include:

  • Clinical Genetics Fellowship Award for Biochemical Genetics awarded by the American College of Medical Genetics Foundation

  • Sidbury Fellowship Award for Biochemical Genetics and Margaret Neilson Fellowship Award, awarded by the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University

She is currently an MBA candidate at the Alliance Manchester Business School, UK. She has extensive experience in diagnosing and managing patients with rare diseases. Dr Roshan Lal has been a principal investigator for multiple rare disease clinical trials and developed numerous protocols for rare disease drug development studies. She has written many peer-reviewed publications as well as book chapters on rare diseases and their management

Wendy Sclafani

Vice President of Clinical Operations
Wendy Sclafani MSHL, BSN is a registered nurse with 25 years of experience. She obtained her Diploma of Nursing from St. Luke’s School of Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Nursing from University of Virginia, and a Master of Science in Healthcare Administration with a leadership Focus from Liberty University. During her career, she has worked in a variety of healthcare positions, including both inpatient and outpatient hospital care, home health care, and leadership positions. She has managed a number of pediatric specialty divisions including the Rare Disease Institute. Prior to joining Uncommon Cures, she was Director of Operations and Business Development for multiple pediatric ambulatory service lines. As Director she worked closely with the multidisciplinary teams to ensure operations and business needs were met and high-quality care was provided to patients. Wendy has been actively involved in numerous projects throughout her healthcare career involving acquisitions, expansion of service lines, submissions of surveys for USNWR and Magnet designation, contract negotiations, and shared nursing leadership. Her service lines at Children’s National Hospital were those most intensely involved with rare disease.

Kerri Gallagher

Director of Nursing
Kerri Gallagher has spent the majority of her nursing career dedicated to the world of pediatrics. She is a passionate advocate for both patients and families. She is experienced in the research world and is published in peer reviewed journals. She was the recipient of the Children’s National’s Daisy Award for Extraordinary Nurses in 2017. She served on the leadership team in Children’s emergency department, one of the busiest in the nation serving the largest rare disease clinical program in the world. Kerri also has a background in solid organ transplant and the complex treatment and research issues surrounding that field. Providing meaningful closure to donor families as well as being a part of a care team giving recipients a second chance at life is one of her proudest professional accomplishments. Kerri is an expert in developing creative strategies to address everyday healthcare problems in the research area. In addition, she shares her skill as a volunteer worker in Haiti.

Tom Moreno

Chief Information Officer

Tom has over twenty-nine years’ experience in the information technology industry having spent the last twenty-five years in the consulting field. He has built several successful from scratch and was also selected as the President of a public company on the Nasdaq at one point in his career. During that time, he has personally been involved in or directed consultants through the architecture and implementation of complex technology solutions for many Fortune 1000 companies around the country and abroad. Tom also served 6 years active duty in USAF Intelligence, as a cryptologic-linguist where he attained multiple awards & commendations from USAF, DOD, and the NSA.

Christiana Bakare

Director of Business Operations

Christiana is an experienced program management professional with over a decade of demonstrated history of working in international development, trade relations and finance sectors. She is skilled in Non-profit Organizations, Financial Management, Relationship Management, Development Finance, Research and Private Sector Development. She has successfully managed and coordinated programs centered on poverty alleviation, African regional and bilateral trade and sustainable development.
She is constantly learning to stay current on the most effective business trends and emerging practices. At Uncommon Cures, she provides expertise to facilitate successful onboarding of projects through the provision of business and program management strategy and operations.

Simon Frost

Founder and CEO of Tiber Capital Group, and active in the field of rare disease research. Board member of RARE-X/Global Genes and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences’ Cures Acceleration Network Review Board, and President of both Cure AHC and Hope for Annabel.

Thomas D. O’Malley Jr.

Thomas O’Malley, Jr. is the founding partner of PilotRock Investments, LLC. PilotRock Investments is the primary investment vehicle for the O’Malley family and related entities. He is also the chairman & CEO of PilotRock Development GmbH & Co. KG, a real estate development company based in Unterhaching, Germany. The company develops and manages residential and commercial real estate holdings primarily in Munich and Berlin. Prior to that, Mr. O’Malley was a founding partner of PilotRock Investment Partners GP, LLC, a US long/short value hedge fund in Greenwich, CT. He started his career in finance at Furman Selz LLC, a diversified investment bank. Mr. O’Malley, Jr. serves on the Board of Regents at Boston College. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Phlow Corp. a pharmaceutical company, as well Clearspeed, a technology firm, based in San Diego and Vestr AG, a technology firm based in Switzerland. He graduated with a BA in economics from Boston College.

Andrew Lo, PHD

Andrew W. Lo is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, director of MIT’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering, and principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His healthcare-related research interests include: new financial engineering tools and business models for drug and device development and healthcare delivery; statistical methods for incorporating patient preferences into the drug approval process; predicting clinical trial outcomes via machine learning techniques; and novel funding and reimbursement models for creating a robust gene therapy ecosystem. He is a co-founder and director of BridgeBio Pharma, a director of AbCellera and Atomwise, a co-founder and chairman of QLS Advisors, and a member of the advisory boards of NCATS and the American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge Impact Fund. Dr. Lo received his B.A. in economics from Yale University and his A.M. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

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