- The Matchright technology allows people to virtually mix two people’s DNA to create digital embryos that give the parents an insight into their baby’s risks of developing any genetic disease, its health, physical characteristics such as possible skin colour, height, waist size etc, even before the baby is conceived.
- The DNA of the prospective parents is sequenced and algorithms use these sequences to digitally recreate the process of genetic recombination, giving a glimpse of the genetic make-up of the possible embryos. It produces up to 1000 virtual embryos that are then sequenced look for mutations in genes and work out the disease risk in the possible baby.
- Potential applications include screening out sperm donors whose genes when combined with the mother’s could increase the risk of a child inheriting genetic disease, screening for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, and Tay-Sachs disease which are passed on to a child when both parents carry a mutation in a single gene.
- Read at:http://epaper.timesofindia.
com/Default/Scripting/ ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive& Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW& BaseHref=TOIM/2014/04/14& PageLabel=13&EntityId=Ar01300& ViewMode=HTML
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