American biotech executive and rare-disease advocate. Her daughter, Mila Makovec, was diagnosed with an ultra-rare neurodegenerative disorder, prompting Ms Vitarello to found Mila's Miracle Foundation to find a treatment. In collaboration with doctors at Boston Children's Hospital, the foundation developed an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) for Mila—the first drug designed for a single patient. Mila was ten when she died in 2021.
After her daughter's death Ms Vitarello pushed regulators to simplify the development of individualised drugs for ultra-rare conditions, finding more enthusiasm in Britain than in America. In 2023 Britain's MHRA, Genomics England and Mila's Miracle Foundation teamed up with experts at Oxford University to create the Rare Therapies Launch Pad, an organisation working out how to regulate custom drugs.
Ms Vitarello also founded EveryONE Medicines, a Boston biotech firm working out how to produce individualised ASOs at scale. She agreed on January 5th 2026 to become the company's chief executive, with a view to solving how such treatments will be paid for in the long run.
An idle mind is worth two in the bush.