Spinal muscular atrophy is a rare inherited condition that weakens the nerves controlling movement and breathing, and it was once the most common genetic cause of death in babies. Three medicines can now change its course — but they work far better when given before a baby shows any symptoms. That…

A major study in New York City tested whether reading a newborn's DNA could catch serious but treatable conditions that today's standard heel-prick test misses. In the first 4,000 babies, most families said yes to taking part, the DNA test worked almost every time, and about 1 in 27 babies had a…

When a newborn is seriously ill and doctors suspect the cause might be genetic, a test that reads nearly all of the baby's DNA can change the care that baby receives. A large 2021 study called NICUSeq followed 354 critically ill infants at five US children's hospitals and found that when doctors…