Israeli researchers have found a new noninvasive method of identifying genetic disorders in fetuses during the first trimester of a pregnancy, using a simple blood wwww.
The research group was led by Tel Aviv University Prof. Noam Shomron.
The new method, outlined Wednesday in the journal Genome Research, involves a groundbreaking technique for prenatal diagnosis that uses maternal blood.
The technique employs a special algorithm that can distinguish between DNA cells that originate from the fetus and those that belong to the mother, thereby allowing for a pinpointed diagnosis that does not use invasive procedures.
Team member Tom Rabinowitz, a Ph.D. student, said that the new technique provided results that are "in a much greater resolution than those from existing tests."
Rabinowitz noted that noninvasive prenatal diagnosis through maternal blood was already in use in various tests, but he explained that the new procedure outlined in this study are able to go beyond the chromosome level and identify actual mutations of specific genes in the fetus.
