A baby has been born in the UK as part of a trial examining the use of next-generation sequencing-based pre-implantation genetic screening for in vitro fertilization, the Guardian reports.
"We are so happy," father Sergio Russu tells the Guardian. "To be honest, I thought it wasn't going to happen. But then it did happen and we got a shock." His wife, Ewa Wybacz had been told that she wouldn't be able to conceive due to past peritonitis surgery and a ruptured ovarian cyst.
As the Guardian notes, NGS-based screening can pick up errors that traditional screens cannot. Wybacz and Russu's first IVF round produced 10 embryos, and screening found that only three had the normal amount of chromosomes in their cells. Wybacz had one embryo implanted, and gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
Through NGS-screening isn't available through the National Health Service, the Guardian notes that it may some day be, if this trial shows that it reduces costs and the time that it takes for couples to conceive. "I think this will become the standard way to do PGS," Tim Child, the medical director at Oxford Fertility, says.