WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, CANWEST NEWS SERVICE
Finally there is an alternative to poking a needle into a mother's womb to test her baby for genetic abnormalities. Last week (October 17), researchers at Sequenom, a genetic diagnostics manufacturer based in San Diego, California, announced the release of MaterniT21, which uses a sample of the mother's blood to test for Down syndrome in the fetus. Specifically, it measures the abundance of DNA that comes from chromosome 21—normally around 1.35 percent of the DNA in the blood. An overabundance of chromosome 21 sequences suggests the fetus may have Down's, which results from carrying an extra copy of the chromosome.
The test boasts a false positive rate of just 0.2 percent, and is being marketed as an additional test to follow up on ultrasound predictions ...
