Oregon joins a national study testing whether newborn screening can check a baby's genome for about 800 conditions

Oregon is one of seven states and territories joining BRIDGES-NBS, a national research study that asks whether genome sequencing can responsibly be added to routine newborn screening. The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and its Northwest Regional Newborn Bloodspot Screening Program announced on Oct. 5, 2026, that enrollment will begin soon.

What changes for a baby in the study: today, Oregon's newborn screening checks for 46 conditions. BRIDGES-NBS will look for about 800 conditions that can be acted on in a baby's first year of life, so monitoring or treatment can start before a first birthday. Routine screening keeps going exactly as it does now; the study adds to it and does not replace it.

No extra poke: the study uses the same dried blood spot from the heel-prick sample hospitals already collect for routine screening. So the baby gets the same one tiny heel stick, and the parents get to wonder why such a small foot can produce so much indignation.

Who can take part: participation is voluntary, costs families nothing, and requires informed consent from a parent or legal guardian. In Oregon, recruiters will be at PeaceHealth-Eugene and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and families anywhere in the state can learn about the study and choose to self-enroll.

The bigger picture: BRIDGES-NBS is described as the nation's first coordinated, multi-state genomic newborn screening effort. It plans to enroll up to 30,000 newborns over two years across Iowa, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Texas. The lab partner, GeneDx, will do the sequencing and interpretation. The study will also look at the ethical, legal and social questions that come with genetic testing, guided by a community advisory board.

"Genome sequencing has the promise to transform the field of newborn screening from a small panel of 46 conditions to more than 700 conditions," said Patrice Held, Ph.D., who manages the Newborn Screening Program at the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory.

Learn more: the study's site is https://www.bridgesnbs.org/ and OHA's newborn screening program page is https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/laboratoryservices/newbornscreening/pages/index.aspx . Questions from the press go to OHA's public health communications team at PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov.

Source: Oregon Health Authority news release, "Oregon to begin enrollment in nationwide newborn genomic screening research study," Oct. 5, 2026: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/ORHA/bulletins/42e10a6

Photo: A blood sample is collected from a two-week-old infant's heel for newborn (PKU) screening, 2007, by Staff Sgt. Eric T. Sheler, U.S. Air Force, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.