Professor (Affiliated) of Genetics, Genomics and Development Steve Brenner heads up a portion of a five-year research program that may deeply influence how states use a heel prick, the first step in newborn screening. Most state public health departments check the infant’s blood after the first day of life to see if something is dangerously wrong. However, as genome sequencing becomes faster and cheaper, the push is on to unravel a baby’s entire DNA code instead.