Carola Vinuesa: ’This discovery could help mothers across the globe. Whole genome sequencing has the potential to explain sudden infant deaths.’
Carola Vinuesa: 'This discovery could help mothers across the globe. Whole genome sequencing has the potential to explain sudden infant deaths.' - Researchers have found a new gene mutation that leads to sudden infant death, which could unlock the case of Kathleen Folbigg - who is over halfway through a 30-year prison sentence for the murder and manslaughter of her four children. Ms Folbigg was convicted by a jury in 2003. She has always maintained her innocence. New research, to be published in EP Europace, shows two of Ms Folbigg's daughters - Sarah and Laura - both carried a previously undiscovered variant in a maternally-inherited gene that is likely to cause sudden unexpected death in infancy and childhood. Professor Carola Vinuesa and Dr Todor Arsov, from The Australian National University (ANU), first found the novel variant in the gene "CALM2", by genome sequencing Ms Folbigg in 2018. The "G114R" variant in the CALM2 gene, which is predicted to cause lethal cardiac arrhythmias, was found in both Ms Folbigg and her two daughters.
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