Repronews #37: How AI is being used to enhance IVF outcomes
PGT practices; CNN on fertility crisis; high-fertility sects; genetics of aging organs; race & diabetes; genetics of sepsis response; Baer’s CRISPR book; saving the Iberian Lynx
Welcome to the latest issue of Repronews! Highlights from this week’s edition:
Repro/genetics
How robotics and AI are support assisted reprodution
Evolving practices in preimplantation genetic testing
Population Policies & Trends
CNN on the the global fertility crisis’ socioeconomic consequences, including the booming adult diaper industry
Will there ever be a high-fertility East Asian religious sect?
Genetic Studies
The genetic architecture of aging organs
Genetic variants underpin some diabetes racial disparities
The genetics of variable response to sepsis
Further Learning
Neal Baer’s edited volume, The Promise and Peril of CRISPR
How Andalusia and the European Union helped multiply the Iberian Lynx population 20-fold and improved their genetic fitness
Repro/genetics
“The Impact of Robotics and AI in Assisted Reproductive Technology: A Comprehensive Review” (Cureus)
In recent years, integrating robotics and AI has emerged as a promising avenue for advancing assisted reproductive technology (ART).
Robotics enables precise and minimally invasive procedures, enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of various reproductive techniques such as sperm retrieval, embryo handling, and surgical interventions.
AI offers predictive analytics, personalized treatment protocols, and decision support systems tailored to individual patient needs, optimizing treatment outcomes and expanding access to reproductive care.
The researchers find that robotics and AI have enabled improved success rates, reduced risks, and enhanced patient experience.
Challenges such as regulatory considerations, adoption barriers, and ethical dilemmas must be addressed to realize the full potential of these technologies.
“Updates in preimplantation genetic testing” (BP&RCO&G)
Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) has evolved hugely in the last three decades and has become an important part of assisted human reproduction (AHR).
In the United States (US), over one third of IVF cycles use PGT for aneuploidy (PGT-A).
Obstetric and neonatal outcomes from PGT conceptions are favorable, although there may be an increased risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (high blood pressure).
Inequity exists globally regarding access to PGT, which is not publicly funded in most countries.
Best quality vs. sex selection – an analysis of embryo selection preferences for patients undergoing preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy over a 10-year period (JARG)
This study investigates patient preferences in embryo selection for transfer regarding quality versus sex in IVF cycles with PGT-A.
A total of 5,145 embryo transfer cycles from a single university research clinic were included. 54.5% chose the best-quality embryo, while 45.5% selected based on sex. Among those choosing based on sex, 56.5% chose male embryos and 43.5% chose female. Preference for quality remained consistent over the decade.
More on repro/genetics:
“First case report of a successful delivery of a healthy boy by preimplantation genetic testing for Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome” (JARG)
“A precise and cost-efficient whole-genome haplotyping method without probands: preimplantation genetic testing analysis” (Reproductive BioMedicine)
“Privacy fears sap potential of female fertility tech start-ups” (Financial Times)
“Surrogacy and Motherhood in Neoliberal Times: Narratives of Developing India” (The Asian Family in Literature and Film)
Population Policies & Trends
“The fertility crisis is here and it will permanently alter the economy” (CNN)
Falling fertility rates have long been a concern for economists worried that aging societies could diminish the labor force, exacerbate inflation, and overwhelm government programs meant to care for aging populations.
A new study by the OECD says that declining birth rates will permanently alter the demographic makeup of the world’s largest economies over the next decade.
If forecasts hold up, 2064 will be the first year in modern history where the global death rate surpasses the birth rate. But the world’s largest economies are already there: The total fertility rate among the OECD’s 38 member countries dropped to just 1.5 children per woman in 2022, from 3.3 children in 1960.
In the 1960s, there were six people of working age for every retired person. Today, the ratio is closer to three-to-one. By 2035, it is expected to be two-to-one.
Top executives at publicly traded US companies mentioned labor shortages nearly 7,000 times in earnings calls over the last decade, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis last week.
While net immigration has helped offset demographic problems facing rich countries in the past, the shrinking population is now a global phenomenon.
By 2100, only six countries are expected to be having enough children to keep their populations stable: Africa’s Chad, Niger, and Somalia, the Pacific islands of Samoa and Tonga, and Tajikistan, according to a study in the Lancet.
CEOs and politicians are already preparing for the baby bust.
Elon Musk, father of 12 children, has remarked that falling birthrates will lead to “a civilization that ends not with a bang but a whimper, in adult diapers.”
P&G and Kimberly-Clark, which together make up more than half of the US diaper market, have seen baby diaper sales decline over the past few years, but adult diapers sales, they say, are a bright spot in their portfolios.
Nestlé’s chief executive, Mark Schneider, recently said he’s shifted the company’s priorities from producing infant formula to serving the nutritional needs of people over the age of 50.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that the U.S. birth rate in 2023 fell to a record low, reversing a small uptick seen during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Those findings underpin the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) economic forecast and budget projections. “What you’re seeing is increased spending on programs like Medicare and Social Security as the baby boomers are aging into those programs. And then of course, fewer workers relative to the number of people who are receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits,” said Molly Dahl, a senior advisor to the CBO.
Social Security payments provide about 90% of income for more than a quarter of older adults in the United States, according to Social Security Agency surveys. But without intervention, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by the mid-2030s, meaning that only a portion of retirees’ expected benefits will be paid out.
“Here are the facts. We are not having enough children, and we have not been having enough children for long enough that there is a demographic crisis,” former Google CEO and executive chairman Eric Schmidt said at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit in London last year. “In aggregate, all the demographics say there’s going to be a shortage of humans for jobs. Literally too many jobs and not enough people for at least the next 30 years.”
Schmidt added however that AI will ease those problems significantly. Some experts say it is too soon to tell how AI will impact the global economy.
“Will there ever be an East Asian Amish community?” (Mercator)
Demographers and demography enthusiasts have always had a deep fascination with the Amish as the prime example of an exclusive and conservative religious sect or community with a high fertility rate unthinkable in most modern societies.
It appears that none of the high-fertility religious sects—Laestadians, Hutterites, Quiverfull Calvinists, Mennonites, and Haredi Jews—are East Asian.
This is despite the plethora of sects, new religious movements, and even cults originating from the region in the past centuries.
The author argues that if East Asia had a fervently religious community such as the Amish or the Haredim, it would be of huge demographic value and benefit.
He laments that most East-Asian religious sects are focused on personal gain rather than actual principles or family formation. Many have faced sexual, financial, and other scandals.
In China, religious subcultures are persecuted by the Chinese Community Party (CCP).
More on population policies and trends:
“How to build a family-friendly city” (IFS)
Genetic Studies
“The genetic architecture of biological age in nine human organ systems” (Nature Aging)
Investigating the genetic underpinnings of human aging is essential for developing actionable therapies for chronic diseases.
The study describes the genetic architecture of the biological age gap (BAG; the difference between machine learning-predicted age and chronological age) across nine human organ systems in 377,028 participants of European ancestry from the UK Biobank.
The study identifies 393 genomic loci–BAG pairs linked to the brain, eye, cardiovascular, hepatic, immune, metabolic, musculoskeletal, pulmonary and renal systems.
Gene variant may underlie racial diabetes disparities: study (Vanderbilt University)
A genetic variation common in people of African ancestry is associated with an increased risk of complications from diabetes, including diabetic retinopathy, which can cause blindness.
Investigators found that the diagnosis of diabetes and treatment needed to prevent diabetes complications may be delayed in people who carry the variant, G6PDdef, because it is associated with reduced levels of HbA1c, a widely used clinical marker of blood glucose levels.
Testing for genetic variations that cause G6PD deficiency could lead to improvements in the way clinicians diagnose and treat diabetes, helping to reduce the long-observed disparity in diabetes complications between individuals of European and African ancestries.
“This discovery could lead to changes in the way diabetes is managed for millions of patients in the U.S. and around the world,” said Dr. Todd Edwards. “More needs to be done, such as health economics and policy studies, and clinical trials, to establish the best way to use this knowledge to prevent diabetes complications.”
“While this discovery may impact how millions of individuals manage their diabetes, it also highlights the importance of including diverse populations in biomedical research,” said the paper’s first author, Dr. Joseph Breeyear. “By including underrepresented individuals, we can identify genetic variations that affect health outcomes.”
Diabetic retinopathy, damage to retinal blood vessels and nerves at the back of the eye that can cause permanent vision loss, has estimated prevalence in the U.S. of 24% in non-Hispanic white people and 34% in non-Hispanic Black people.
The multi-institutional study was led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System and Million Veteran Program (MVP), Emory University School of Medicine, and the Joseph Maxwell Cleland Atlanta VA Healthcare System.
The study was published in Nature Medicine.
“Study reveals genetic basis of sepsis response variability” (Medical Xpress)
New research uncovers how different people respond to sepsis based on their genetic makeup. This could help identify people who would benefit from certain treatments and lead to the development of targeted therapies.
The study details the genetic basis of variability in sepsis response and the different regulators and cell types involved in the different immune responses.
Sepsis causes an estimated 11 million deaths worldwide per year, or one death every three seconds. In the United Kingdom, at least 245,000 people are affected by sepsis, and 48,000 people die each year.
“Our research found two groups of people, with opposite immune responses, and identified the genetic regulators involved”, said Dr. Katie Burnham, first author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute. “Being able to molecularly categorize patients with sepsis allows clinicians to correctly identify who could benefit from the available treatments and gives new direction to those developing targeted therapies.”
The study was published in Cell Genomics.
More on genetic studies:
“Dissecting heritability, environmental risk, and air pollution causal effects using > 50 million individuals in MarketScan” (Nature Communications)
Further Learning
Neal Baer (ed.), The Promise and Peril of CRISPR (JHU Press)
TV producer and lecturer on global health Neal Baer brings together a collection of essays by influential bioethicists, philosophers, and geneticists to explore the moral, ethical, and policy challenges posed by CRISPR technology.
Gene-editing technology holds the promise of curing more than 7,000 known genetic diseases.
The book discusses how CRISPR may also be used to manipulate human evolution, enable genetic enhancement, or create pathogens and bioweapons, as well as ways to supervise the technology.
Essay contributors offer informed predictions and guidelines for how the uses of CRISPR today will affect life in the future.
The contributors are Florence Ashley, R. Alta Charo, Marcy Darnovsky, Kevin Doxzen, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Gigi Kwik Gronvall, Jodi Halpern, Katie Hasson, Andrew C. Heinrich, Jacqueline Humphries, J. Benjamin Hurlbut, Ellen D. Jorgensen, Peter F. R. Mills, Carol Padden, Marcus Schultz-Bergin, Robert Sparrow, Sandra Sufian, Krystal Tsosie, Ethan Weiss, and Rachel M. West
“The Iberian lynx: a species on the brink of extinction is now a success story” (IDOM)
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently announced that the Iberian lynx is no longer under threat of extinction. There are more than 2,000 specimens living on the Iberian Peninsula, up from just 90 in 2002.
With co-financing from the European Union’s LIFE programme, the Regional Government of Andalusia, which is responsible for the remaining specimens has conducted four projects to help the Iberian Lynx recover.
Among other actions, these projects aimed to improve the habit and prey populations, found new Lynx populations, and foster genetic enhancement by bringing new blood into limited gene pools.
The four LIFE projects involve a total of 35 partners, including public administrations, scientific institutions, NGOs from different sectors, and private companies, as well as local people and communities.
While the Iberian Lynx is no longer considered at risk of extinction, it will remain an threatened species until its population reaches at least 3,500 individuals.
More on human nature, evolution, and biotech:
Agriculture
“EU split on deregulating gene-edited food as Council deadlock persists [on patentability]” (EurActiv)
“Gene-edited products will arrive quickly: Major crop producing areas of the world have figured out regulatory pathways” (Farmtario, Canada)
Italy’s first CRISPR crop trial, a gene-edited fungus-resistant rice, destroyed by vandals (Science)
Disclaimer: The Genetic Choice Project cannot fact-check the linked-to stories and studies, nor do the views expressed necessarily reflect our own.