NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – India's MedGenome is now providing Natera's Panorama non-invasive prenatal test at its genetics laboratory in Bangalore, Natera said today.
MedGenome is the first provider to offer NIPT locally in India, and its laboratory is the only such facility to receive Pre-Conception Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques certification, Natera said.
Panorama uses a blood draw from the mother to examine cell-free DNA found in maternal blood originating from both the mother and fetus to screen fos chromosomal abnormalities, including trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome), monosomy X (Turner syndrome), and triploidy. The test can be performed as early as nine weeks of gestation, and there is no risk to the fetus. In accordance with Indian law, Panorama will not be used to reveal the sex of the fetus, Natera said.
In addition to performing the Panorama test, MedGenome will provide clinical genomic analysis using Natera's Constellation cloud-based software platform.
"We are pleased that MedGenome has chosen the Natera Constellation platform to offer NIPT to the large and rapidly growing market in India," Natera CEO Matthew Rabinowitz said in a statement. "Constellation is a highly scalable platform that is enabling non-invasive DNA testing capabilities to laboratories around the world."