Should genome sequencing for newborns be routine?

Research team will look at medical and social consequences

Computational Biologist Steven Brenner will be part of an ambitious effort toassess whether large-scale gene sequencing aimed at detecting disorders and conditions can and should become a routine part of newborn testing.

Brenner, a professor in the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley, is part of a UC San Francisco team granted $6 million by the National Institutes of Health to identify the accuracy and feasibility of providing genetic sequencing as part of, or instead of, the current newborn screening that relies on biochemical changes in the blood. It also will assess what additional information would be useful to have at birth and the ethics and public interest in having such tests performed.

"Genome sequencing has the potential to reduce costs and improve theeffectiveness of newborn screening," Brenner said, allowing early intervention for infants and fundamental changes in the tehcnology for screening newborns.

The project has three broad goals:

The cost of genome sequencing has plummeted but the ethical and moral questions surrounding genetic testing loom large.

The first genome sequenced, about a decade ago, cost nearly $3 billion.Today scientists can sequence all of anindividual's genes for a few hundred dollars. The Brenner Lab, experts at computational biology, are at the forefront of this new area of science.

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Should genome sequencing for newborns be routine?