Three critically ill children helped by speedy genome sequencing

Superfast DNA sequencing is saving children’s lives. The technique has helped doctors in London quickly diagnose rare disorders in 10 critically ill children, enabling clinicians to give better treatment and protect some from life-threatening complications.

It took over a decade and around $2.7 billion to fully sequence the first human genome, but recent advances in technology have sped up the process and led to a fall in price. A team at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children has now used rapid whole-genome sequencing to diagnose children with unknown illnesses in…