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[Ripclawe]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/jul/07/ivf-baby-born-genetic-screening

The first IVF baby to be screened using a procedure that can read every letter of the human genome has been born in the US.

Connor Levy was born on 18 May after a Philadelphia couple had cells from their IVF embryos sent to specialists in Oxford, who checked them for genetic abnormalities. The process helped doctors at the couple's fertility clinic in the US select embryos with the right number of chromosomes. These have a much higher chance of leading to a healthy baby.

The birth demonstrates how next-generation sequencing (NGS), which was developed to read whole genomes quickly and cheaply, is poised to transform the selection of embryos in IVF clinics. Though scientists only looked at chromosomes – the structures that hold genes – on this occasion, the falling cost of whole genome sequencing means doctors could soon read all the DNA of IVF embryos before choosing which to implant in the mother.

If doctors had a readout of an embryo's whole genome, they could judge the chances of the child developing certain diseases, such as cancer, heart disease or Alzheimer's.

Marybeth Scheidts, 36, and David Levy, 41, had tried another fertility treatment, called intrauterine insemination (IUI), three times without success before they signed up for IVF at Main Line Fertility clinic in Pennsylvania.

As part of an international study with Dagan Wells, a fertility specialist at Oxford University, the couple were offered NGS to check their IVF embryos for abnormal chromosomes. Abnormal chromosomes account for half of all miscarriages.

The chances of an embryo having the wrong number of chromosomes rises with the mother's age, and potentially with the father's. For women in their 20s, one in 10 embryos may have the wrong number of chromosomes, but for women in their 40s, more than 75% can be faulty.

Most of the time, embryos with abnormal chromosomes fail to implant in the womb. Those that do are usually miscarried. The portion that survive to full term are born with genetic disorders, such as Down's syndrome and Turner syndrome.

After standard treatment at the US clinic, the couple had 13 IVF embryos to choose from. The doctors cultured the embryos for five days, took a few cells from each and sent them to Wells in Oxford for genetic screening. Tests showed that while most of the embryos looked healthy, only three had the right number of chromosomes.

"It can't make embryos better than they were in the beginning, but it can guide us to the best ones," said Wells.

Based on the screening results, the US doctors transferred one of the healthy embryos into Scheidts and left the rest in cold storage. The single embryo implanted, and nine months later Connor was born. Details of the study will be given at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (Eshre) meeting in London on Monday.

"I think it saved us a lot of heartache," Scheidts told the Guardian. "My insurance covered me for three cycles of IVF. We might have gone through all three without the doctors picking the right embryos. I would not have a baby now."

A second baby who had the same genetic screening is due to be born next month, after a US couple had IVF at New York University fertility centre.

Doctors can already screen embryos for abnormal chromosomes using a technique called Array CGH, but the procedure adds more than £2,000 to the cost of IVF. Wells said NGS could bring the cost down by a third. To check the number of chromosomes is much simpler than reading all of the DNA accurately.

"It is hard to overstate how revolutionary this is," said Michael Glassner, who treated the couple at the Main Line Fertility clinic. "This increases pregnancy rates by 50% across the board and reduces miscarriages by a similar margin. It will be much less expensive. In five years, this will be state of the art and everyone who comes for IVF will have it."

In Britain, doctors are banned from selecting embryos for anything other than the most serious medical reasons. But as scientists learn more about genetic causes of disease, the urge to choose embryos to avoid cancer and other diseases later in life will intensify.

"You can start to have a very scary picture painted if you talk about height and hair colour and so on," said Glassner. "We have to make sure this is used judiciously."

The prospect of "designer babies" is remote for now, even if it were made legal. IVF produces only a dozen or so embryos at best, so the odds that one has all the traits a couple desires are very low. "IVF is still expensive and uncomfortable with no guarantee of a baby at the end. I can't imagine many people wanting to go through the strains of IVF for something trivial," said Wells.

The Oxford team now plans a large trial of the screening procedure to assess how much it boosts pregnancy rates, and which age groups it benefits the most.

Scheidts still has two screened embryos in cold storage, but has not yet decided whether to use them. "We haven't even thought about that. We'll see how the first year goes."

 

[Blake'sGrave]

sweet, one step closer to eradicating genetic diseases for good.

 

[Bombadil]

Very cool.

We could simply eradicate cancer in this way.

 

[Alucrid]

gattaca

 

[kudosx]

I wonder how Darwinism will play out in the future.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Shame it only works for IVF.
We still need the technology to reach into an already pregnant woman, and change around the developing fetus to remove any genetic disorders it might have.

We're a bit off from that though.

 

[R3TRODYCE]

I don't know how to feel about this GAF.

 

[DOBERMAN INC]

Wonderful news, hopefully dealing a huge blow to deformities and disease in future births.

 

[falconzss]

gattaca

Would have been a fitting first post.

 

[Bombadil]

I don't know how to feel about this GAF.

Are you an overly proud member of the deaf community?

Feel fucking good about it. In two or three generations, we can feasibly eliminate a large number of congenital diseases and greatly reduce other diseases that arise from genetic predisposition.

 

[dekline]

The future is awesome

 

[i-Lo]

gattaca

Khan!

 

[Spring-Loaded]

I wonder how Darwinism will play out in the future.

This is Darwinism.

 

[Master Milk]

So wait, they started growing 13 babies, looked at the results, planted 1 and refrigerated the rest?

 

[Jenga]

I want to make my baby blond and blue eyed

 

[happypup]

Very cool.

We could simply eradicate cancer in this way.

Unfortunately no, this isn't enough to eradicate cancer. It will however reduce the number of cases of cancer by quite a bit.

 

[AMUSIX]

So wait, they started growing 13 babies, looked at the results, planted 1 and refrigerated the rest?

Actually, this is less of a story about 1 amazing birth brought on by science, and more about 12 horrific abortions committed by those heathen scientists.




Honestly, though, this is a pretty cool step towards helping a lot of different issues. Cancer has been mentioned, but also ensuring a much higher percentage of healthy babies, and more successful artificial insimination attempts.

 

[smiggyRT]

gattaca

Did we all just become in-valids?

 

[DonMigs85]

Are you an overly proud member of the deaf community?

Feel fucking good about it. In two or three generations, we can feasibly eliminate a large number of congenital diseases and greatly reduce other diseases that arise from genetic predisposition.

Yeah sure, for rich-ass folks maybe

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

gattaca

Gonna start out like Elysium before it gets practical for everyone.

 

[davepoobond]

this is good for humanity. we need to get smarter people that can get us off this rock and into the rest of the universe ASAP.


we will be the greatest scourge ever known to the universe.

 

[CornBurrito]

Yeah sure, for rich-ass folks maybe

That's typically the case with a lot of new medical procedures.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

So wait, they started growing 13 babies, looked at the results, planted 1 and refrigerated the rest?

Embryos, and they destroyed only the faulty embryos and refrigerated three of the healthy ones, yeah.

 

[Femmeworth]

Embryos, and I presume they destroyed the remaining ones (though I dunno), yeah.

Embryos are people too!

Spoiler

And corporations.

 

[Air]

Don't quite know how to feel about this. This is definitely good for diseases and such, but...gattaca or designer babies or whatever. This is one of those things I feel humanity will have to be very cautious with.

 

[Conor_Fool]

Only right that his name is Connor. Just take out one of those goddamn Ns

 

[happypup]

Embryos are people too!

Spoiler

And corporations.

embryos are

Spoiler

corporations?

Gametes are people, haploid people, but we shouldn't discriminate just because they are haploid.

 

[Lagspike_exe]

Don't quite know how to feel about this. This is definitely good for diseases and such, but...gattaca or designer babies or whatever. This is one of those things I feel humanity will have to be very cautious with.

It's only a matter of time before people start designing their own children.

 

[Despera]

This is why I always recommend Gattaca to people. The premise isn't that far fetched.

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

We're almost to our designer baby future! Right in time for me to consider being a father!

I want my designer baby to be 6' 6" +1/3" with curly dark brown hair, light brown skin, olive eyes and handsome cheeks with dimples, small pointy cute nose and a masculine but not overly macho chin, even hair growth pattern, pretty fast metabolism, and I want him to come out the womb with a strong grasp on differential equations and molecular science.

 

[speedpop]

this is good for humanity. we need to get smarter people that can get us off this rock and into the rest of the universe ASAP.


we will be the greatest scourge ever known to the universe.

"We're coming for you, Vega! Pitstop @ Uranus! Woop!"

 

[Femmeworth]

embryos are

Spoiler

corporations?

Not what I meant, but also true.

 

[Master Milk]

Embryos, and they destroyed only the faulty embryos and refrigerated three of the healthy ones, yeah.

Calling them embryos instead of babies doesn't change anything.

But yea, I see they only refrigerated 3 of them, not that that changes anything either.

I guess when humans evolove into something better, this'll be one of the moments that people will look back to.

 

[Aristion]

I want to make my baby blond and blue eyed

wut is this

 

[Choke on the Magic]

Les Enfants Terribles

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

It's only a matter of time before people start designing their own children.

Good. I'm still hoping the technology becomes mature before I want kids,

 

[bluelightningduo]

My long term GF has celiacs disease, and seeing as it's genetic it would be cool if it (and the countless other genetic issues most of which are more serious than celiacs) could be eliminated.

 

[Air]

It's only a matter of time before people start designing their own children.

People have been doing it for millennia, but the technology available turns into quite a moral matter for me. I think the question is, how much control should we have over our children and the pregnancy process? There are some interesting ethical questions that arise from this.

What if everybody wants their baby to have blonde hair and blue eyes?
What effect would that have on society?
The children? Etc.

One step at a time I suppose.

I worry about the genetic bottle necking this may lead to.

If society at large screened for a common set of defects, our genetic variability could decrease which could make the overall population more susceptible to pandemic or other catostrophic conditions

This too.

 

[Juice]

I worry about the genetic bottle necking this may lead to.

If society at large screened for a common set of defects, our genetic variability could decrease which could make the overall population more susceptible to pandemic or other catostrophic conditions

 

[Deleted member 80556]

I like this because it will prevent some genetic diseases from happening, but at the same time I can't help but to feel that we'll fuck it up somehow.

 

[zero shift]

People have been doing it for millennia, but the technology available turns into quite a moral matter for me. I think the question is, how much control should we have over our children and the pregnancy process? There are some interesting ethical questions that arise from this.

What if everybody wants their baby to have blonde hair and blue eyes?
What effect would that have on society?
The children? Etc.

One step at a time I suppose.

It will be a gradual process. A lot of things will need to be locked down. Who will be able to use this? How accessible and available will it be for all of the public?

That being said I guess it depends on the country. I feel this will be much like plastic surgery in which it will vary culture to culture. Just compared South Korea's use to America's.

 

[legend166]

So would the people who are all for this be happy for religious parents to screen out homosexual children?

 

[Gintoki313]

First they found a way to make deaf people hear again, and now this. This month has been spectacular in the medical science world.

 

[CornBurrito]

This too.

Idk, the alleles coding for disease resistance may not be the same we select out. Assuming they aren't tied to most genetic illnesses or vanity things like eye color/hair color etc...

First they found a way to make deaf people hear again, and now this. This month has been spectacular in the medical science world.

Cochlear implants existed before this month. Or is there a new technology?

So would the people who are all for this be happy for religious parents to screen out homosexual children?

Morally I think there is a difference between selecting out a debilitating genetic condition, and selecting out something like homosexuality.

 

[McLovin]

gattaca

Not quite, it looked like they couldn't have children otherwise. They weren't actually modifying the dna just making sure the embryos were healthy.

 

[Air]

It will be a gradual process. A lot of things will need to be locked down. Who will be able to use this? How accessible and available will it be?

That being said I guess it depends on the country. I feel this will be much like plastic surgery in which it will vary culture to culture. Just compared South Korea's use to America's.

Yeah I think that's a good example of what it could be. I think juice said it best though that this could lead to some genetic bottle necking. But yeah I agree. This stuff bothers me more than the run of the mill tech fantasies.

Idk, the alleles coding for disease resistance may not be the same we select out. Assuming they aren't tied to most genetic illnesses or vanity things like eye color/hair color etc...

That's definitely possible. But I feel like so many functions overlap within our DNA, it's like untangling a massive web. That said, I don't know enough about this stuff to properly make a call. It's always good to be wary though.

 

[-COOLIO-]

Good. I'm still hoping the technology becomes mature before I want kids,

Same here.

 

[Eighty Deuce]

So would the people who are all for this be happy for religious parents to screen out homosexual children?

 

[BakedPigeon]

idiocaracy is still a good possibility, because even perfect genetically born people can still be trained to become retarded.

 

[-COOLIO-]

So would the people who are all for this be happy for religious parents to screen out homosexual children?

If parents want their kid to be blonde that's kinda weird but whatever. I say this because sexual preference has much to do with a person base character and functionality as their hair color.

edit: let me elaborate now that im behind a keyboard.

let's be honest, straight people, do at the moment, have easier lives. there's very little that's detrimental in being straight over being gay aside from unwanted pregnancies. while the parents might have terrible motives for designing their future baby to be straight, there's nothing inherently detrimental to anyone's happiness about it currently. i mean picking a straight baby sounds really bad, probably because of the horrible gay camps, but it doesn't break my simple rule to life: 'being happy without making other's unhappy'.