Article Image

IPFS News Link • Science, Medicine and Technology

Will Your Baby Like Cilantro? These Genetic Tests Say They Can Tell

• https://www.wired.com

You have instant communication, on-demand entertainment, and dial-up transportation—why should you have to wait nine months to see what kind of baby you're going to have? Now there's an app for that.

In a modern-day reboot of Lindsay Bluth's "Mommy What Will I Look Like" business venture, Denver-based startup HumanCode has introduced BabyGlimpse. It's a $259 test that uses DNA from each member of a couple to predict how their future child might look and act—from skin, hair, and eye color to preferred kinds of snacks. (With a variant of the SLC2A2 gene your kiddo might have more glucose receptors than average, and therefore a sweet tooth, so goes the scientific reasoning.) Fun, right?

"We've coined it sunshine science," HumanCode co-founder Jennifer Lescallet told the Balitmore Sun last month. "You get to look at the fun part of your potential future baby versus some of the scary stuff." The scary stuff being more traditional carrier screen genetic tests, which tell couples if they have any disease-related genes they could potentially pass on to their offspring. These are either ordered by a doctor based on family history, or are now increasingly available to buy directly, after an online or phone consultation with a physician.

BabyGlimpse is one of the latest examples of a growing direct-to-consumer genetic testing industry aimed at new, expecting, and aspiring parents. Some, like BabyGlimpse, rely on a combination of each partner's DNA. Others, like Orig3n's Child Development test, collect spit or cheek swabs from the new kiddos themselves, and then work with labs to sequence, analyze, and interpret that genetic information. The companies behind these tests say they're mostly for entertainment, and for educating folks about how genetics work. But doctors and public health officials have concerns that they might, in fact, do the opposite.


www.universityofreason.com/a/29887/KWADzukm