Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis: The Next Big Thing?

Courtesy of David Hill, ART Reproductive Center Inc.Two separated blastomeres subjected to FISH analysis to check the chromosomes. In early October, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) made headlines when a Colorado couple used assisted reproductive technology (ART) to have a baby named Adam, whose umbilical cord stem cells could cure his six-year-old sister Molly's Fanconi anemia.1 When Adam Nash was a ball of blastomere cells, researchers at the Reproductive Genetics Institute at Illinois

Ricki Lewis

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Courtesy of David Hill, ART Reproductive Center Inc.

Two separated blastomeres subjected to FISH analysis to check the chromosomes.

In early October, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) made headlines when a Colorado couple used assisted reproductive technology (ART) to have a baby named Adam, whose umbilical cord stem cells could cure his six-year-old sister Molly's Fanconi anemia.¹ When Adam Nash was a ball of blastomere cells, researchers at the Reproductive Genetics Institute at Illinois Masonic Medical Center separated and probed one cell. They discovered that his genome was free of the Fanconi anemia gene and also a match for Molly in terms of human leukocyte antigens (HLA). So the researchers implanted the remainder of the ball of cells into Lisa Nash's uterus, and Adam was born in late summer at Fairview University Hospital in Minnesota. A month later, physicians infused his umbilical cord stem cells into his sister. So far, so good.

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