The researchers are developing a tool that can predict the cause of death in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) cases, reports SFU’s The Peak.
The team has received $100,000 in funding from the Stem Cell Network to pursue the research as well as a $160,000 grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
According to HealthLinkBC, while SIDS is rare, it is a common cause of death for babies aged between one and 12 months. There are no warning signs before SIDS occurs, and SIDS cases can be further complicated when the cause of death cannot be determined “through autopsies, toxicology, microbiology, X-ray and other analyses,” as Tibbits stated.
The tool that is being developed by Tibbits and his lab members will be used to determine if the cause of death was sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in SIDS cases where the cause of death was unclear.
