The leading reason for a baby to be admitted to an intensive care unit when they’re born is a genetic disease. That’s a disease that’s caused by a mistake in the human genome sequence.
Dr. Stephen Kingsmore, President and CEO of the Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine
And the human genome, made of what’s commonly known as DNA, is the instruction(s) for constructing a human being. Researchers decoded, or read through the human genome, to quickly identify babies’ illnesses.
Project Baby Bear used the above method across five Californian children hospitals, improving health outcomes for 178 critically-ill babies and medical cost savings of $2.5 million.
… we proved that rapidly decoding the genome can save children’s lives, benefit families and also save money for health care providers.
Dr. Stephen Kingsmore, President and CEO of the Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine
Read more about the Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine’s efforts and goals with Project Baby Bear here.