Baby's genome deciphered prenatally from parents' lab tests
Wednesday, June 6, 2012 - 17:20
in Biology & Nature
Maternal blood sampled at 18 weeks into a pregnancy and a paternal saliva specimen contained enough information for scientists to map the fetus' whole genome. Fetal DNA is in a pregnant women's bloodstream starting a few weeks after conception. Scientists assessed many and more subtle variations in the fetus' genome, down to a one-letter change in the DNA code, compared to current tests that screen for only a few major genetic errors.