Designer IVF Babies - 0ne step closer

People undergoing in vitro fertilization or IVF screen have their embryos screened for genetic disease before choosing one. It’s called preimplantation genetic testing.   

Now, a new test goes a step further. While genetic screening tests identify mutations that lead to conditions such as Down’s Syndrome and cystic fibrosis, the new test predicts the chances a child might develop diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and even schizophrenia.  These are called polygenic diseases which is what can happen when genes interact.  

Researchers created the test by analyzing an embryo’s genome for millions of single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs.  Since SNPs are linked to certain diseases, they can be used to predict an embryo’s risk of developing them. Then people undergoing IVF can choose the healthiest embryo to implant.  

Genomic health companies like Orchid sequence over ninety-nine percent of an embryo’s genome, testing for twelve hundred single-gene diseases, fifty missing or duplicate genes, and polygenic risk scores for twelve common diseases such as Alzheimer’s and certain cancers. But keep in mind that the test can’t know whether someone picks up smoking or eats poorly in their lifetime, so the person can still get heart disease even if they weren’t predicted to have it.   

And could this technology open the door to designer babies, where parents select for intelligence and looks? Drawing legal lines around this would be a smart move. Either way, we see this becoming a standard part of IVF.