Mallorca genome test aims to help critically ill children

On Mallorca, in Spain’s Balearic Islands, Son Espases University Hospital is helping to test whether critically ill babies and children can get genome results in under 14 days. It is leading the Baby Lince study with La Paz University Hospital in Madrid. The Balearic health authority set out the project on Wednesday, 7 October 2026.

Testing children and their parents

The study will include 150 seriously ill children. Doctors will examine each child’s genome alongside those of both parents, making 450 samples in all. They want to find out whether the faster results help them diagnose illness earlier and make decisions about care.

That timetable calls for neonatal and paediatric intensive care teams to work closely with clinical geneticists and laboratory geneticists. The teams also need a process that takes each case from choosing a patient and collecting samples through to analysing and interpreting the results.

Early results point to changes in care

Preliminary findings from a third of the study group show a genetic cause was found in 25 to 30 per cent of patients. Clinical management changed in 75 per cent of cases.

Hospitals in Murcia, Barcelona and Madrid are also taking part. The full findings will help determine whether rapid genome testing is useful in routine care for critically ill children, and whether it could be added to the Spanish National Health System’s common catalogue of genetic and genomic tests.

Topics: Health

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com