Technology now Lets you Check your Baby Even Before it is Conceived

The Matchright technology which is marketed by GenePeeks will now allow the parents-to-be to have a glance at their baby’s health and characteristics even before it has been conceived.

The latest technology has made this possible by creating digital embryos which is generated after mixing two people’s DNA virtually. The technology will help in ruling out sperm donors who could increase the risk of a child carrying inherited genetic diseases.

At Princeton University, the co-founder of GenePeeks Lee Silver said "it covers any disease or any trait that has a genetic influence". According to GenePeeks, this new technology can be used to identify conditions like cystic fibrosis and Tay-Sachs which occurs in a child if both the parents carry a mutation in a single gene.

To identify any genetic disorders, sequencing of DNA of both the prospective parents takes place. The Matchright technology feeds this information to the algorithms and the process of genetic recombination is re-created digitally.

This process gives a glimpse of the genetic make-up of the possible embryos. The Matchright algorithms are run many times for each sperm donor which a woman selects. The process produces up to 10,000 embryos per pairing which are screened for mutations present in the genes which can lead to almost 500 rare diseases.

Article Source: Times of India

Image courtesy: Getty Images

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