ns of children’s faces to detect signs of rare genetic conditions, they said Monday. The technique works by picking up tiny changes in the shapes of noses, jaws, ears and head shape of children and comparing them to the faces of healthy youngsters.
It can help to pick up conditions such as Fragile X syndrome more quickly. Fragile X sufferers have long faces and protruding ears and symptoms include learning disabilities and delays in speech.
The technology has a 90 percent success rate, according to Professor Peter Hammond, a computer scientist at the Institute for Child Health at University College London, who worked on the research.
“A lot of genes do a lot of different things in the body,” Hammond said.
“Some may affect your liver or lungs, and bone structure, but may also contribute to the face.
“Genes that affect the face may also affect other parts of the body. It’s a complex picture.” Around 700 genetic disorders are known to have an affect on the face and Hammond’s team has investigated 30 so far.
They are about to start using scans to test 10 conditions in a clinical trial.
Hammond will talk about the research Monday at the British Association Festival of Science at the University of York in northern England.
