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WSLH Researchers Receive $1.5 Million Newborn Screening Grant MADISON – Researchers at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) received a $1.5 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a pilot study to implement Severe Combined Immune Deficiency (SCID) newborn screening in state public health laboratories. Babies born with SCID, sometimes known as "Bubble Boy Disease," have a defect in both T-cell and B-cell production. The disorder is severe and usually fatal without early diagnosis and treatment. The study will build on an earlier collaboration between the WSLH, which performs all newborn screening in the state, the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and the Jeffrey Modell Foundation to develop protocols and a test method to perform SCID testing in a high-volume newborn screening laboratory. This collaboration led to Wisconsin becoming the first state to screen all newborns for SCID starting in January 2008. http://www.slh.wisc.edu/news/scid_080402.dot Primary investigator on the grant is UW Population Health Sciences Professor and WSLH Director Charles Brokopp. Co-investigators include UW Pediatrics Assistant Professor Mei Baker and Emeritus Population Health Sciences Professor and Emeritus WSLH Director Ronald Laessig. Dr. Baker and Dr. Laessig presented Wisconsin's latest SCID findings at the national Newborn Screening and Genetics Testing Symposium in November in San Antonio, TX.
Posted By: Jan Klawitter, WSLH Public Affairs and Training Manager |
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