In 1938, Louis K. Diamond, MD, and Kenneth Blackfan, MD, at Boston Children’s Hospital described a severe congenital anemia that they termed “hypoplastic” (literally, “underdeveloped”) because of the bone marrow’s inability to produce mature, functioning red blood cells. Eighty years later, the multiple genetic origins of this highly rare disease, now known as Diamond-Blackfan anemia, or DBA, are finally coming into view.

The largest study to date, published recently in the American Journal of Human Genetics, raises as many questions as it answers. But in the meantime, it provides a genetic explanation for nearly 80 percent of patients. …