Patients with serious and potentially fatal genetic conditions have been given new hope of receiving a diagnosis after researchers successfully trialled next generation sequencing technology.

Researchers at Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard & MIT trialled gene sequencing technology, which can sequence thousands of genes at the same time, with the aim of determining its ability to be used in a clinical setting as a diagnostic tool to identify mitochondrial disease and other genetic conditions.   

Dr Ruth Bishop has been honoured in a ceremony in Thailand today for her discovery of rotavirus, and subsequent work on the vaccine development for the infection; receiving Thailand's Prince Mahidol Award 2011, in the field of public health.  

Children's development after a brain injury does not get worse over time, a Murdoch Childrens Research Institute study has found.

Contrary to a long held clinical view that a child's development after a traumatic brain injury gets worse over time, the study found after an extended recovery period, children gradually stabilised and began to make developmental gains, regardless of injury severity.