Routine newborn screening (NBS) has transformed early disease detection. However, traditional biochemical tests limit the range of conditions that can be identified at birth. Next-generation sequencing is being explored as a complementary screening tool. A review published in Pediatric Investigation examines how next-generation sequencing could expand NBS from single-disease assays to genome-enabled, multi-disease screening approaches.

University of Toronto researchers are calling for more study of obesity, gut bacteria and metabolic conditions that arise in childhood and adolescence, with an eye to curbing the global rise of type 2 diabetes.

The team says a better understanding of how genetic and environmental factors that lead to obesity also alter the make-up and function of the gut microbiota — the community of microbes living in the gut — will yield better interventions for children most at risk for youth-onset diabetes.