Fertility doctors in Beijing are testing a new method for genome analysis of human eggs before using them for in vitro fertilization or IVF. The tests allow doctors to know the genome of a woman’s egg before it is used in IVF, which could provide a safer way to help their patients avoid genetic disorders in children.
Genetic analyses that are more limited than whole-genome sequencing are already widely performed on IVF embryos by plucking a single cell from an embryo to determine the number of chromosomes or screen for specific mutations. But there is some concern that taking a cell from a developing embryo could damage it, says Jie Qiao, director of the fertility center at the Third Hospital of Peking University.
Read the full, original story here: Single-Cell Genomics Could Improve IVF Screening