bebegene® Newborn Genetic Screening
Screens 0-3 years babies with more than 120 conditions caused by chromosomal abnormalities and disease-causing gene variants, providing you an expanded insight of your baby’s health condition.
Perfectly Safe and Painless
It only requires a tiny drop of cord blood for testing.
Clinically validated technology
It uses high-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray platform for testing, which is the recommended first-tier genetic investigation for many conditions, including autism and intellectual disability.1
Internationally certified laboratory
The sample will be tested by our CLIA-certified clinical lab partner based in South Korea. Managed by USFDA, CLIA sets stringent quality standards for labs performing tests on human specimens to ensure accurate, reliable and timely results. Currently, only CLIA-certified labs can report clinical genetic testing results to patients in the United States.
Detailed report insights
A detailed interpretation of your baby’s test results will be provided within 6 to 8 weeks after the delivery of your baby. The report will include recommendations to help you make informed choices about your baby’s condition.
Hassle-free Sample Collection
Collection of the test specimen is conducted as a part of the cord blood banking process. Once the quality check of the cord blood for banking is completed, the remaining blood will be processed and send to our clinical laboratory partner for testing.
The more you know about your baby, the better equipped you can be to address any potential health problems.
Screening your newborn will facilitate early treatment and prevent long term detrimental effects to your baby’s health.Frequently Asked Questions
Expectant mothers can sign up for bebegene service, whether they have signed up for cord blood banking or not.
bebegene® only requires 0.1ml of residual cord blood for testing. Residual blood is the remaining cord blood after going through the cord blood banking quality control checks. This will not affect the volume and usability of the cord blood unit that you have stored with us.
Bebegene® provides you an expanded coverage of conditions beyond the checks conducted at the hospital. With the access to more information of your baby’s health, you can take preemptive measures to manage the potential conditions that your child is predisposed to. This small step can help to make a difference in your child’s development and overall health.
Genetic counselling service is available upon request. Our qualified genetic counsellor will help you understand the result better and provide holistic advice on the follow-up options that you can take.
Disclaimer and Test Limitation
bebegene® genetic screening is tested by Eone-Diagnomics Genome Centre (EDGC), a CLIA-certified clinical lab based in South Korea with leading-edge technology for genome analysis. EDGC has a quality management system in place to ensure maximum accuracy of screening results. The test is only highly accurate for chromosomal abnormalities of aneuploidies, deletions and duplications (>200kb). As with any screening tests, false positive or false negative results cannot be completely eliminated due to various reasons including but not limited to specimen quality and other variables. This is a genetic screening test related to the genetic predisposition developmental disorders. It cannot be considered as a diagnostic test. Hence, the risk of a disorder should never be precluded solely on the basis of screening. If pathogenic variants are detected, follow up testing is recommended to confirm the results. Signs or symptoms observed should be followed up immediately by a professional healthcare provider.
Reference: 1. Genetic profile and clinical application of chromosomal microarray in children with intellectual disability in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Med J. 2018;24:451-9.