Leuven researchers develop pioneering test for blood disorders

Medical researchers have long wanted an all-in-one test that would determine which of the 63 genes related to blood disorders was present in a patient. Because many blood diseases are genetic, doctors first have to identify the gene involved to know which treatment they should apply.

Current procedures usually start with a test for the haemophilia gene. If that is negative, another test follows, and so on, until all 63 known genes related to blood diseases have been tested. This procedure is of course extremely costly and, for some patients, takes more than a year before a clear diagnose can be made.

Using gene sequencing technologies and advanced computing, the new test, developed using 200 blood samples from patients in Flanders, delivers a diagnosis in six to eight weeks. “That means a major improvement in the care of patients,” said professor Kathleen Freson of KU Leuven’s Centre for Molecular and Vascular Biology, “but also provides scientists more insight into the genes involved in rare blood and blood-clotting illnesses.”