Sir, – The planned destruction of an entire generation’s worth of Guthrie cards collected as part of National New-born Bloodspot Screening Programme would be an outrageous act of vandalism, destroying an unique and irreplaceable bio-resource.
In my current studies I examine how certain forms of leukaemia that are seen in very young infants develop within the foetus before birth. The entire concept behind these studies is based on the fact that for many children who go on to develop leukaemia, characteristic markers unique to their leukaemia cells can be found on their retrospectively examined Guthrie cards – suggesting that the damaged cells that go on to cause the leukaemia are present at birth and therefore must first arise within the developing foetus. The discovery of this unique insight would not have been possible were such resources not available, what more could there be left to discover? – Yours, etc,
Dr NEIL BARRETT,
PhD Candidate,
Department of
Haematology,
University of Cambridge,
Cambridge Institute for
Medical Research,
Cambridge, England.