Real Life Application: Newborn Screening

Newborn feet

Separation sciences can be tough to grasp. The real-life impact isn't always immediately obvious, and we're often left wondering how it all affects our day-to-day. Real-Life Applications are here to show you some of the most prevalent ways chromatography and more makes life worth living.

The scene of a birth is often a frenzied one: relieved mothers, doting fathers, weeping grandparents, and patient medical staff—not to mention screaming babies. Helpful nurses teach new parents how to swaddle. Friends come bearing balloons and cigars.

birthscene

the most important ritual, however, is screening your newborn for health risks. Kidshealth.org refers to newborn screening as “the practice of testing every newborn for certain harmful or potentially fatal disorders that aren’t otherwise apparent at birth.” Many of those disorders are metabolic, which “interfere with the body’s use of nutrients to maintain healthy tissues and produce energy.” One of these metabolic disorders is phenylketonuria.

neonatal

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s Genetics Home Reference page, phenylketonuria is “an inherited disorder that increases the levels of a substance called phenylalanine in the blood.” Phenylalanine is a “building block of proteins” obtained through diet. Untreated phenylketonuria can lead to harmful phenylalanine buildup, causing intellectual disability and other serious health problems. So, then what? Gas chromatography is used to screen newborn infants for phenylketonuria. If the condition is discovered early, it can be treated with a modified diet and medication.

New born with mother

The life of a new parent is stressful enough. Separation sciences—however quietly—can help ease their minds.

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Real Life Application: Newborn Screening

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