The project
The Baby Detect project was initiated by Professor Laurent Servais, Professor of Paediatric Neuromuscular Disease (University of Oxford) and Prof of Child Neurology (University of Liège) and Professor François Boemer, Head of the Newborn Screening Center together with the teams of the pediatric and genetic departments of the CHU Liège.
How it all started: Screening for SMA
In 2018, Laurent and François started the “Sun May Arise on SMA” project, focusing on early detection of SMA, a severe neurodegenerative disease for which early detection has a major positive impact on patients.
After 3 years of hard work, the team succeeded to include SMA in the regional newborn screening program, and every baby born in Southern Belgium was screened for SMA as of 2021.
Professor Servais and his team also created the “Before SMA Academy” https://www.beforesma.com/en/academy, which offers international training on SMA screening and has already had 4 successful editions.
This has helped many countries to adopt SMA screening in their national NBS program. The SMA screening project is now a great international success, but it only tackles one treatable disease. And there are hundreds of them.
Birth of the Baby Detect project
Following this success, the team wanted to go deeper and faster. How can we screen for many more diseases in one single test?
Involving the teams of the Pediatric and Genetic departments of the CHU Liège and CHR La Citadelle, we created a list of pediatric treatable diseases for which an early treatment or management solution could be offered to the patients detected. The Baby Detect project was born.
The clinical study
It started as a clinical study ran in the maternity wards of La Citadelle and CHU Liège-Notre-Dame des Bruyères (ref). The first patient was included on September 1, 2022, and the enrollment was closed on May 31, 2025, with 6.824 patients participating in the study.
The study demonstrated the acceptability of the test by parents, the feasibility in maternity wards, and the positive clinical impact as published in several journals, including Nature Medicine in January 2025 (see study results section).
Extending access to parents
Convinced by the demonstrated benefits of Baby Detect, the CHU Liège decided to make the Baby Detect test available to other maternity wards, for parents who would like to screen their baby for this extended list of 165 diseases.
The CHU contracted THAMEUS S.A. to inform hospitals, health care professionals, insurance organizations, as well as future parents of the existence of the test.
The Baby Detect test is entirely performed within the CHU, according to the highest ISO quality standards audited in the institution, and patient data are handled following GDPR regulations. The test is invoiced by the CHU to parents at a price of 650 EUR.
The Team
Core Team
François Boemer – Head of the Newborn Screening Center
Kristine Hovhanessyan – Geneticist, laboratory scientist
Valerie Jacquemin – Geneticist, laboratory scientist
Myriam Mni – Laboratory technician
Cécile Wegria – Medical secretary
Claude Demol – Medical secretary
Aymeric Harmant – THAMEUS CEO
Clinical Study Team
Laurent Servais – PI, Professor of Neuromuscular disease
Tamara Dangouloff – Post-doc researcher (medico-economic analysis)
Davood Mashhadizadeh – Grant manager
Leonor Palmeira – Bioinformatician
Laura Helou – Bioinformatician
Supporting teams
Pediatricians from CHU Liège and CHR La Citadelle
Geneticists from CHU Liège
Bioinformaticians from CHU Liège
Tamara Dangouloff
Post-doc researcher
Léonor Palmeira
Bioinformatician
Davood Mashhadizadeh
Grant Manager Baby Detect
Aymeric Harmant
THAMEUS CEO
Myriam Mni
Laboratory technologist
Prof. Laurent Servais
Professor of Neuromuscular disease
François Boemer
Head of the Newborn Screening Center
Valerie Jacquemin
Geneticist, laboratory scientist