Red Ice News

The Future is the Past

Getting fetus’ genetic makeup from mother blood test
New to Red Ice? Start Here!

Getting fetus’ genetic makeup from mother blood test

Source: chealth.canoe.ca
The days of pregnant women having a 3-inch-long (8-centimetre-long) hollow needle jabbed into their abdomens may be numbered.

For the second time in a month, scientists have announced that a simple blood test, rather than more invasive tests such as amniocentesis, can determine a fetus’s genetic make-up, identifying mutations causing any of about 3,000 inherited disorders that arise from a glitch in a single gene, such as cystic fibrosis.

Unlike a procedure unveiled last month, the one announced Wednesday in the journal Nature can be done without knowing who the father is, much less obtaining a sample of his DNA. Since paternity is unknown or incorrect in an estimated 3 to 10% of births in the United States, the father-free method promises to make fetal DNA sequencing possible in every pregnancy, if hurdles including cost and accuracy are overcome.

"We’re really on the verge of an enormous increase in our ability to understand what an infant will be like," said Dr Michael Katz, a senior adviser to the March of Dimes, a foundation that supports research on pregnancy and birth defects. Katz was not involved in the study. "You’ll be able to detect any kind of abnormality early, quickly, without distress and safely. This is the way of the future."

Determining a fetus’s genome might give women more reasons to end a pregnancy. But it would also let physicians identify conditions that can be treated before birth or immediately after, said Stephen Quake of Stanford University in California, who led the new study: "The way it’s done now, parents wait until a newborn gets sick and suffers in the first weeks of life, and only then does the doctor start figuring out the baby has a metabolic or immune disorder."

With prenatal genetic testing, in contrast, the parents would know by the end of the first trimester (12 to 13 weeks) if the fetus has a genetic or chromosomal defect. That way, they can be ready if the baby has special needs, which can be as simple as a certain diet.

[...]

Read the full article at: canoe.ca





Entire genome of fetus sequenced without DNA from man

Comments

We're Hiring

We are looking for a professional video editor, animator and graphics expert that can join us full time to work on our video productions.

Apply

Help Out

Sign up for a membership to support Red Ice. If you want to help advance our efforts further, please:

Donate

Tips

Send us a news tip or a
Guest suggestion

Send Tip

Related News

Silent Sam Statue Defaced with Red Ink and Blood from Protester
Silent Sam Statue Defaced with Red Ink and Blood from Protester
Behavioral genetics, one of the fastest growing fields in science, still makes a lot of people very uncomfortable
Behavioral genetics, one of the fastest growing fields in science, still makes a lot of people very uncomfortable

Archives Pick

Red Ice T-Shirts

Red Ice Radio

3Fourteen

Con Inc., J6 Political Prisoners & The Pedophile Problem
Kim Coulter - Con Inc., J6 Political Prisoners & The Pedophile Problem
Why European Culture, Art and Beauty Matter
Gifts - Why European Culture, Art and Beauty Matter

TV

Laughter: The New Weapon Of The Far-Right
Laughter: The New Weapon Of The Far-Right
London’s Fourth Plinth To Get Fat Black “Everywoman” Statue
London’s Fourth Plinth To Get Fat Black “Everywoman” Statue

RSSYoutubeGoogle+iTunesSoundCloudStitcherTuneIn

Design by Henrik Palmgren © Red Ice Privacy Policy