At 1UP, we believe the most meaningful work happens when marketing serves something bigger than growth. Our Partner Spotlight series is our way of celebrating the organizations we are proud to work alongside, organizations whose mission is central to everything they do and whose work makes a genuine difference in the world.
MiraKind is one of those organizations. After more than a decade of partnership, we could not be more proud to shine a light on what they are building.
Partner Spotlight: MiraKind
Helping Cancer Patients Make Treatment Decisions Based on Their Own Genetics
When someone receives a cancer diagnosis, they are forced to make decisions quickly, often without having all the information they need. The focus immediately turns to treatment. What are the options? What will work? What are the risks?
What most people do not know is that the answers to those questions may be partly written in their own DNA, in inherited genetic variants that standard tests do not look for and that most oncologists are not yet testing for.
They are a nonprofit research organization dedicated to making sure cancer treatment isn’t just “best practice,” but “best for you.” We’ve had the privilege of working alongside them since 2014.
The Problem MiraKind Is Solving
Current cancer treatment has come a long way. More people are living longer after a diagnosis than ever before. But there is a gap in how treatment decisions are made.
Today, treatment is largely based on the type, location, stage, and genetics of the tumor. What is often missing from that picture is the patient’s own inherited genetics. A person’s genetic variants can have a significant impact on how their body responds to treatment, including their risk of serious side effects from radiation and immunotherapy. Without that information, the treatment plan is incomplete.
MiraKind was founded to close that gap. Their research focuses on a class of inherited genetic variants, found in a part of DNA called noncoding RNA, that can help identify how a person’s body is likely to respond to specific cancer treatments. The goal is to give patients and their doctors better information so they can make safer, more personalized treatment decisions.
What MiraKind Offers
MiraKind develops and provides access to genetic tests based on years of research into this unique class of variants. Each test is designed to give cancer patients and their care teams information they could not get anywhere else.
The KRAS-variant
The KRAS-variant was the first of this class of inherited genetic variants to be identified, co-discovered by MiraKind’s founder Dr. Joanne Weidhaas in 2006. Research has found that people who carry the KRAS-variant are at a higher risk of certain types of cancers, and may also respond differently to certain cancer treatments. For example, some chemotherapy drugs are less effective for KRAS-variant carriers, while other targeted treatments work better. Knowing this before starting treatment can help patients and their oncologists choose the most effective path forward.
PROSTOX
For prostate cancer patients considering radiation treatment, PROSTOX is a genetic test that identifies whether they carry variants associated with a significantly higher risk of serious late side effects, including urinary problems and bladder complications. These side effects affect a meaningful percentage of patients who receive radiation. Knowing the risk ahead of time means treatment alternatives can be chosen to protect the patient.
PREVIOTOX
Immunotherapy is one of the most promising developments in cancer treatment, but it comes with a significant risk. Immune-related side effects, where the treatment causes the immune system to attack healthy parts of the body, can occur in up to 30% of patients and can be serious and life-altering. PREVIOTOX is a genetic test that identifies patients at a much higher risk of these side effects before they begin immunotherapy, giving them and their doctors critical information to weigh when making treatment decisions.
Education and Awareness at the Core
MiraKind is a nonprofit organization, and that matters. Every decision they make is driven by mission rather than margin. Alongside their testing work, they invest heavily in education of the public.
If you are like the vast majority of people on this planet, the words noncoding RNA variants probably leave you scratching your head. That is completely normal, and you are in good company. MiraKind works to change that through clear, accessible information about how personal genetics connects to cancer risk and treatment, written for patients and families in plain English.
They also build research registries that allow individuals with specific variants to participate in ongoing studies, turning each person who gets tested into a contributor to the science that will help the next person. That is a powerful model: awareness drives testing, testing drives research, and research drives better outcomes for everyone.
Perhaps the clearest expression of who MiraKind is came during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the world was in crisis and testing backlogs were overwhelming the healthcare system, MiraKind did not slow down or wait. They worked with their sister diagnostic laboratory, MiraDx, to convert their lab into a COVID testing facility to help address the backlog and serve the public during one of the most urgent health emergencies in recent memory. It was not part of their original mission. It was simply the right thing to do. That instinct tells you everything about the organization.
Why This Partnership Matters to Us
At 1UP, we work with organizations where the mission is central to what they do. MiraKind is one of the clearest examples of that in our entire history as an agency.
The work is genuinely consequential. Our role is to make sure more people can find MiraKind when they need them. Through SEO, tracking, and creating a Google Ad Grants account, we have spent more than a decade working to grow their reach and connect more patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers with what MiraKind offers. It is the kind of work where the numbers mean something beyond the numbers.
MiraKind is doing work that changes lives, but like many health foundations and research orgs, the biggest hurdle is often just being found.
We think about that a lot. And it is a big part of why we do what we do.
What about you?
Is your organization’s digital presence keeping pace with your mission?
We created the Visibility Gap Playbook specifically for health foundations and organizations who want to understand exactly where their digital presence is falling short and what to do about it. It is free, practical, and built on more than a decade of working with organizations like MiraKind.
https://start.1updigitalmarketing.com/health-industry-online-visibility-audit