Repronews #31: Over 7/10 Americans approve of polygenic embryo screening
7/10 Americans support acess to IVF; South Korea to create ministry for births; France to boost IVF access & institute "fertility checks-ups"; NYT on modifying endangered species to save them
Welcome to the latest issue of Repronews! Highlights from this week’s edition:
Repro/genetics
Almost 4/5 Americans support polygenic embryo screening against diabetes, heart disease, cancer
70% of Americans say access to IVF is a good thing
The Times of London’s Danny Fortson interviews Noor Siddiqui on “super-babies”
How to have polygenically screened children
Population Policies & Trends
South Korea to create ministry to tackle plummeting birth rate
French President Macron will increase access to IVF and institute “fertility check-ups” to boost the birth rate
Genetic Studies
Further Learning
The New York Times reports on how Australian conservations are modifying endangered species’ genome to help them survive.
Repro/genetics
Survey: almost 4/5 Americans support polygenic screening against diabetes, heart disease, cancer (Harvard Medical School)
A survey reveals almost four-out-of-five (77%) U.S. adults support using polygenic embryo screening during IVF against certain physical diseases—such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Over seven-out-of-ten (72%) approved of polygenic screening against psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and depression.
Over four-out-of-five (82%) said they would be at least slightly interested in using polygenic embryo screening if they were already undergoing IVF.
Almost a third (30%) said they would consider using IVF in order to access polygenic screening.
The survey results were published by JAMA Network Open.
Patients undergoing IVF can choose which embryos to implant based on DNA tests that detect chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down syndrome, and diseases caused by mutations in a single gene, such as cystic fibrosis. Such screening, known as preimplantation genetic testing, is well-established and widely used.
Polygenic embryo screening (also known as preimplantation genetic testing for polygenic outcomes) estimates probabilities for conditions and traits influenced by many gene variants that each raise or lower risk by a small amount.
The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics has said that polygenic embryo screening is not yet suitable for clinical use.
The first part of the study surveyed more than 1,400 participants representing the wider U.S. population in age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Findings showed that:
72% of respondents approved of using polygenic embryo screening in general. 17% were ambivalent and 11% disapproved.
36% approved of selecting embryos based on likelihood of certain behavioral traits.
30% approved of selecting embryos based on likelihood of certain physical traits.
92% expressed at least slight concern about polygenic embryo screening leading to false expectations about the future child.
About half were “very” or “extremely” concerned about negative outcomes for individuals or society.
70% of Americans say access to IVF is a good thing (Pew Research)
An April Pew Research Center survey found a large majority of Americans say people having access to IVF is a good thing.
Just 8% say access to IVF is a bad thing, while 22% are unsure.
There are only modest differences in views of IVF access across most demographic and partisan groups.
Podcast: Danny in the Valley interviews Noor Siddiqui on “super-babies” (Times of London)
Sunday Times correspondent Danny Fortson speaks with Noor Siddiquui, founder of Orchid Health.
They discuss the company’s launch, targeting ageing at conception, how polygenic screening works, why Siddiqui thinks this is the future of conception, the need for regulation, the potential to exacerbate societal problems, why longevity enthusiasts invested, and the potential conservative backlash.
“How to have polygenically screened children” (LessWrong)
GeneSmith of the LessWrong forum provides a useful overview of IVF and the emergence of polygenic embryo screening.
This includes estimates of the current power of selection for or against various diseases and traits, as well as practical information on accessing the service.
More on repro/genetics:
“Taming IVF’s wild west: Real regulation is long overdue. But consumer protection is not enough.” (The New Atlantis)
“The parents who want daughters—and daughters only: Sex selection with IVF is banned in much of the world. Not in the U.S.” (Slate)
“The DNA Test Delusion: Mass-market genetic testing has little to offer most people. That’s a big problem for 23andMe” (Bloomberg/BusinessWeek)
“A gay couple couldn’t access IVF benefits. They’re suing New York City” (Washington Post)
Population Policies & Trends
“South Korea to create new ministry tackling plummeting birth rate” (The Independent)
South-Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the country will set up a a ministry to address the country’s plummeting birth rate, calling it a “national emergency”.
Yoon said the South-Korean parliament will be asked to cooperate to create a “Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter-Planning”.
“We will mobilise all of the nation’s capabilities to overcome the low birth rate, which can be considered a national emergency,” he said. “This is not a matter we can take time to work on.”
The birth rates in the country dropped to 0.72 babies per woman in 2023, the lowest national birth rate in the world.
Macron: access to IVF and “fertility check-ups” to boost birth rate (Ouest-France)
French President Emmanuel Macron gave more details on his plans to boost fertility in an interview with Elle magazine.
“Every woman must have freedom over body. But there is a striking figure: the fertility rate is 1.8, while the average number of desired children is 2.3,” he said.
Macron’s plan against infertility will focus on prevention, pathway, and research.
A “fertility check-up” will be proposed and reimbursed by national health insurance around the age of 20 in order to “establish a complete assessment, spectrogram, (or) ovarian reserve.”
“We are going to organize campaigns in favor of self-preservation of oocytes for women who want to have children later,” Macron added.
To reduce waiting times for access to IVF—currently 16 to 24 months—Emmanuel Macron intends to “open up oocyte self-preservation to private centers” which was “until now reserved for hospital establishments.”
The French president remains opposed to surrogacy: “I’ll say it again, I’m not in favor of it. It is not compatible with the dignity of women, it is a form of commodification of their bodies.”
Macron had previously announced an upcoming “great plan against infertility” as part of France’s “demographic rearmament.”
More on population policies and trends:
“The far right’s campaign to explode the population” (Politico)
“Swedish study: Economic and social costs of infertility” (population.news)
Genetic Studies
“Genes underpin health risks associated with puberty growth spurts” (PET)
“New genetic cause of Alzheimer’s disease identified” (PET)
“New breast cancer genes found in women of African ancestry, may improve risk assessment” (Reuters)
“Decoding the interplay between genetic and non-genetic drivers of metastasis” (Nature)
Further Learning
“Should we change species to save them? Science is using ‘assisted evolution’ to give wildlife a chance” (New York Times)
Scientists are using a variety of techniques, including crossbreeding and gene editing, to help vulnerable Australian species survive.
“We’re looking at how we can assist evolution,” said Anthony Waddle, a conservation biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney.
“We’re searching for solutions in an altered world,” said Dan Harley, a senior ecologist at Zoos Victoria. “We need to take risks. We need to be bolder.”
Endangered species’ reproduction and health are often hampered by limited genetic diversity, leading to excessive inbreeding.
Among helmeted honeyeaters, the most inbred birds leave one-tenth as many offspring as the least inbred ones. Inbred females’ lifespans were half as long.
Without some kind of intervention, the helmeted honeyeater could be pulled into an “extinction vortex,” said Alexandra Pavlova, an evolutionary ecologist at Monash. “It became clear that something new needs to be done.”
A decade ago, experts suggested an intervention known as “genetic rescue,” proposing to add some Gippsland yellow-tufted honeyeaters and their fresh DNA to the breeding pool. While members of the same species, they are genetically distinct subspecies that have been evolving away from each another for roughly the last 56,000 years. The Gippsland birds live in drier, more open forests and are missing the pronounced feather crown that give helmeted honeyeaters their name.
Crossing the two types of honeyeaters risked muddying what made each subspecies unique and creating hybrids that were not well suited for either niche.
“There was a lot of angst among government agencies around doing it,” said Andrew Weeks, an ecological geneticist at the University of Melbourne who began a genetic rescue of the endangered mountain pygmy possum in 2010.
Dozens of hybrid honeyeaters have now been released into the wild. They seem to be faring well, but it is too soon to say whether they have a fitness advantage.
Scientists are also investigating how to use CRISPR gene editing to make corals more heat resistant.
Dr. Waddle hopes to use CRISPR to engineer frogs that are resistant to the chytrid fungus, which causes a fatal disease that has contributed to the extinction of at least 90 amphibian species.
Genetic interventions are “likely to have some unintended impacts,” said Tiffany Kosch, a conservation geneticist at the University of Melbourne.
To Dr. Harley, it has become clear that preventing more extinctions will require human intervention, innovation, and effort. “Let’s lean into that, not be daunted by it,” he said. “My view is that 50 years from now, biologists and wildlife managers will look back at us and say, ‘Why didn’t they take the steps and the opportunities when they had the chance?’”
More on human nature, evolution, and biotech:
Evolutionary psychology
“12 things everyone should know about evolutionary psychology” (Steve Stewart-Williams)
Research
“Scientists are trying to get cows pregnant with synthetic embryos” (MIT Technology Review)
Health
“Gene therapy enables deaf baby to hear” (PET)
“Can global genomic surveillance forecast the next pandemic?” (DNA Science)
Agrifood
“How crop biotechnology is regulated in the United States” (GLP)
“Gene-edited, low-cost, ultra high-density protein soy greenlit for sale by USDA” (GLP)
“The debate over lab-grown meat: Are concerns about cultured meat justified?” (Quillette)
“Ghanaian court upholds approval of 14 new GM crops” (Science Nigeria)
Security
“How to avoid a genetics arms race” (Hastings Center)
“U.S.-EU synergy to bolster transatlantic biotechnology and biomanufacturing” (NSCEB)
History
“A eugenicist history of the county fair” (MSN/Boston Globe)
Disclaimer: The Genetic Choice Project cannot fact-check the linked-to stories and studies, nor do the views expressed necessarily reflect our own.