London: A healthy boy in the US has become the worlds first test tube baby to be born using a new low cost next-generation sequencing IVF technique that screens the embryo for genetic defects, Oxford scientists announced today,sources said.
The method, through which the baby was born last month, uses the latest DNA sequencing techniques and aims to increase in-vitro fertilisation success rates while being more affordable for couples and lowering the risk of miscarriages, researchers say.
The international team led by Dr Dagan Wells of Oxford University showed how next-generation sequencing can be used to pick the embryos created by IVF that are most likely to lead to successful pregnancies.
The approach can identify embryos with the correct number of chromosomes and may cut hundreds of pounds off the cost of embryo screening, Wells said.
The majority of embryos produced by IVF are not able to lead to successful pregnancies, and scientists have sought to find ways of identifying the embryos that should be implanted to give the greatest chance of success.
