Should you have the ability to craft your perfect infant, what characteristics would you select? A child who adores slumber and sleeps soundly throughout the night? A sharp intellect for mathematics coupled with a fondness for the viola? For the individuals who established the fertility technology venture Herasight, this isn't a speculative question.
TL;DR
- Silicon Valley tech firms are developing methods to screen embryos for health, traits, and genetic conditions.
- Prospective parents can select IVF to generate embryos for genetic assessment, aiming for desired offspring characteristics.
- This new era of family planning involves significant investment in advanced embryo assessment techniques and gene editing.
- The rapid innovation in reproductive technology outpaces current regulations, raising ethical and legal questions.
Herasight founder Michael Christensen is 6-foot-6, and even in a world where taller men are perceived as stronger and more competent, it’s a bit much. He wants his future children to be shorter and more comfortable on commercial planes.
“It’s annoying to be super tall,” he said. “Nothing is made for you.”
Chief science officer Tobias Wolfram has already stored frozen embryos with his partner, anticipating their future family. His great-grandparents lived beyond 100 years without experiencing cancer or significant health issues, hinting at a familial inclination for healthy longevity. However, his family has a history of depression.
“I’d really like to make sure that’s not passed down,” he said. Wolfram has waited five years for Herasight’s technology to reach its current state, so that he can screen embryos for mental health indicators.
Jonathan Anomaly, a communications leader at Herasight, is nearing his fifth decade and intends to start a family with his 37-year-old partner. Anomaly mentioned that his grandmother was exceptionally intelligent but was confined to her home due to five distinct autoimmune conditions. He intends to test embryos for autoimmune illnesses, and similar to Christensen, Anomaly stated he will also test for stature. However, he desires future sons to exceed his own height of 5 feet 9 inches.
This is the new era of family planning emerging across the Bay Area, a place known for its concentration of extreme wealth, high risk tolerance, affinity for new technology, and early-adopter mentality. Rather than having babies the Where Did I Come From? Way, prospective parents are blazing an unprecedented approach to family planning. Gone are the wealthy parents who pay women for their eggs because they have desirable traits or who seek out sperm donors based on Ivy League degrees and athletic prowess. This is reproduction reimagined through the lens of algorithms and data science down to the genetic blueprint that makes up a human being.
This novel approach involves choosing IVF from the outset, even when fertility is not a concern, for the purpose of generating embryos. Subsequently, expectant parents are expending considerable sums on various advanced embryo assessment techniques. These methods can effectively generate profiles of their future offspring's health outlooks by revealing their susceptibility to hereditary conditions, pediatric malignancies, schizophrenia, autism, and both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Additionally, certain companies provide options for traits such as stature, body mass index, aptitude for music, and elevated IQ scores. Given that affluent individuals are supporting fertility technology ventures and financing novel investigations into conception and embryo choice, distinguishing between established scientific principles, developing potential, and ambitious marketing becomes progressively challenging.
On the outer edges, scientists and researchers are studying the efficacy of penis transplants, and five have been performed worldwide so far, including one in the U.S. Uterus transplants have led to 29 live births, nearly all by C-section. A team of Chinese scientists successfully conceived mice with two male mice fathers—without DNA from a mother mouse. And more is on the horizon, including AI-enabled and automated IVF processes that could lower costs substantially and artificial womb development. A height and intelligence screening startup backed by Reddit and Seven Seven Six fund founder Alexis Ohanian plastered New York City subway stations with ads this month for Nucleus Genomics, imploring riders to “Have Your Best Baby.”
The worldwide IVF sector, currently valued at $28 billion enterprise, is still in its early stages. Investment in startups focused on women's health and IVF technology started to increase last year, with 2024 emerging as the peak year for funding, reaching $2 billion, representing a 55% increase increase compared to 2023.
Some of these new add-ons to IVF are driven by people who just “want to know” about their embryos in the way people want to find out the sex of their baby before birth, said Barry Behr, director of Stanford’s IVF lab and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology who is known for his groundbreaking work in improving IVF and advancing the field of embryo selection. Other times, it’s about how to make more money from the IVF process or lower the cost for patients. Regardless of the motivation, for anyone who has had a child or relative who has been sick with a debilitating disease or condition, “you know how that makes you feel,” said Behr, who is an advisor to Orchid Health, which offers embryo screening.
“A parent would do anything—give a kidney, give a limb, or whatever you could give to a child to avert suffering,” said Behr. “So don’t tell me how anyone could even question doing something to your embryo that we do for other reasons routinely.”
Yet the rapid pace of innovation and investment has created a regulatory and ethical vacuum, experts have observed. “Technology will always outpace the law,” said Rich Vaughn, a prominent fertility lawyer who has seen the field evolve during the past two decades. “Technologies develop first; law and regulations make things legally safer for everyone, but they trail behind.”
Furthermore, the contentious method of embryo editing—which involves altering an embryo's genetic makeup prior to implantation and is illegal in seventy nations or banned via financial limitations—is currently under investigation and receiving financial support, notwithstanding the significant dangers associated with it. Coinbase co-founder and wealthy individual Brian Armstrong stated that he invested in an embryo-editing venture named Preventive, which has secured $30 million. Armstrong is being joined by Oliver Mulherin, the husband of OpenAI's CEO and co-founder Sam Altman.
Cathy Tie, formerly of Thiel Fellow, is heading a different startup that aims to genetically modify embryos prior to implantation. Her goal is to significantly reduce the likelihood of inherited illnesses by correcting genetic defects. (Investor Peter Thiel provides a two-year, $200,000 fellowship for entrepreneurs who wish to leave or pause their college studies to concentrate on developing an idea.)
“I believe that gene correction technology is much more effective in achieving those goals than embryo screening,” said Tie, cofounder of Manhattan Genomics. She plans to begin testing on nonhuman primates early next year before moving to human embryos, pending regulatory approval.
Tie believes many couples, especially those with relatively older women, wind up with too few embryos to choose from after they go through the process of stimulating their follicles and retrieving eggs. “Let’s say I’m a woman in my mid-thirties,” said Tie. “I’m lucky if I’ll get 10 eggs, and from that I’ll maybe get two embryos. Then a company will tell me one embryo is better than the other.” Despite public controversy over embryo editing, which alters genes that would be passed down to new generations and involves irreversible decision-making, Tie said she has received a lot of support from researchers, scientists, and IVF doctors.
Hank Greely, a Stanford law professor focusing on biomedical technology matters and the author of The End of Sex, a 2016 publication forecasting that humanity will ultimately procreate primarily via IVF, informed Coins2Day that the examination for aesthetic characteristics such as hair, eye, and skin hue or nasal structure is not distant.
People in Silicon Valley, where Greely lives, are most interested in influencing their offspring’s intelligence, personality, musical and sports ability, and proficiency in math. Right now those are areas scientists “know almost nothing about,” he said.
However, technological advancements are progressing rapidly, and certain specialists believe the boundary between what's permissible and what isn't will also shift.
“There was a time when it wasn’t appropriate to show your knees, and now you can wear a thong at the beach,” said Behr. “The line moves with time.”
The advent of technology in assisted reproductive technology
Noor Siddiqui, the chief executive of a company focused on reproductive technology, has a personal reason for establishing the polygenic screening business Orchid Health. Her mother is afflicted with a rare inherited eye disorder known as retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that resulted in a gradual decline of her eyesight and ultimately her mother's loss of vision. Siddiqui, who is also a Thiel Fellow, mentioned that she was driven to explore embryo screening after observing the advancement of her mother’s illness. Furthermore, Siddiqui intends to have four offspring and has utilized Orchid’s innovation to screen her own embryos.
The company sits in the center of the IVF technology sector, advancing scientific capabilities primarily to avert illness.
For a considerable period, individuals pursuing parenthood via in vitro fertilization have had the option to select preimplantation genetic screening to confirm an embryo possesses the appropriate chromosome count. Beyond chromosomal irregularities such as trisomy 21—an additional chromosome 21 leading to Down syndrome—these assessments also examine for serious conditions originating from single-gene defects, including sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis.
Orchid provides “polygenic risk” embryo scoring. The new company has secured funding from Day One Ventures and Prometheus Fund, alongside individual investors such as Figma's chief executive officer, Dylan Field, and 23andMe's co-founder, Anne Wojcicki. Eventbrite's co-founders, Julia and Kevin Hartz, have also put money into Orchid, and the pair screened their embryos for genetic conditions like Alzheimer’s prior to having twins they named “Cohort 2”, following their initial two daughters reaching adolescence. Publications reports have cited unnamed sources alleging that Shivon Zilis, who shares children with the planet's richest individual, Elon Musk, has utilized Orchid's offerings.
Orchid's methodology utilizes comprehensive genome sequencing, going beyond conventional screening by examining the entirety of an embryo's genetic makeup. Siddiqui mentioned that Orchid offers clients the choice to screen for over 1,000 genetic conditions, or alternatively, to screen for 3,000 single-gene disorders, encompassing both inherited and de novo alterations within the embryo. Standard examinations typically assess chromosome counts and individual gene ailments. She frequently likens this process to a writer ensuring absolute precision when publishing a book.
“If your proofreader didn’t actually read your book to check for spelling errors, missing words, missing punctuation, would you be satisfied if they just told you all the chapters were present?” She said. Siddiqui said parents are also interested in the genetics of autism, and Orchid screens can detect genetic mutations in specific genes known to cause autism spectrum disorder, although it cannot predict all autism risk. Experts have warned that there is no reliable test for autism, although recent studies have found a genetic cause in 25% to 50% of cases.
“We want the maximum amount of information to be provided to parents to mitigate the maximum amount of risk when it comes to genetics,” said Siddiqui.
Herasight, the new venture founded by three individuals each aiming to identify characteristics in their offspring, has recently concluded its period of undisclosed operations after a number of years. The company employs a unique technical methodology for polygenic screening, enabling collaboration with any IVF facility. It analyzes genetic information to detect predispositions to childhood and adult illnesses and health issues, and in certain instances, factors such as stature, intellect, lifespan, and psychological conditions including sadness.
The company provides a complimentary IVF calculator enabling future parents to gauge their conception likelihood, spanning from egg retrieval to delivery, utilizing data from over 100,000 IVF treatment cycles documented in the U.K.'s national registry. Herasight's published research indicates a reduction in disease risks by 20% to 44% when choosing from five embryos. While the validation outcomes stem from the company's internal investigations rather than external assessments, Herasight has published its procedures and information for external examination. The firm's investigations have revealed what they term “positive pleiotropy,”, signifying that by avoiding one specific disease, parents frequently diminish the likelihood of associated ailments as well.
“Everyone has a unique family history, so we don’t have one type of customer,” Christensen told Coins2Day. Sometimes a prospective parent will come to the firm, excited about screening embryos for IQ, and then they’ll discover a BRCA gene mutation, which can increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancers. Then that becomes the top priority in screening embryos, said Christensen. Anomaly said every embryo-screening choice represents a tradeoff. “Creating the perfect baby—that doesn’t exist,” he added.
Kyle Farh, a researcher at Illumina's artificial intelligence division, which specializes in DNA sequencing and genetic analysis, stated that a significant challenge in data interpretation currently persists because AI models require substantially more input. While approximately one million individuals worldwide have undergone genome sequencing, a realistic target of one billion people needing genome sequencing is necessary for these models to operate with greater efficacy.
“It’s a chicken and egg problem,” said Farh. “We can predict [traits], and we can show that there’s some significant correlation between our predictions and what happens in real life, but the correlation is still very poor.”
For parents aiming to avert a significant, life-altering illness, this advancement has been revolutionary. Roshan George, a software engineer and consultant, along with Julie Kang, an art director residing in San Francisco, engaged Orchid to examine their embryos. This decision followed their discovery that they both carried a genetic anomaly that could lead to severe hearing loss in their offspring. Just one day after their infant daughter, Astra, was born, it took approximately two minutes to ascertain if the substantial funds they had allocated to embryo assessment had contributed to the desired result for their child. A technician administered a hearing evaluation to Astra in their bright Sutter Health hospital room, marking the final stage of a process involving months of genetic examination and embryo risk evaluations.
“I mean, we spent all this money, we did this whole thing and got through all this,” said George. The test showed Astra’s hearing was normal, and the new parents were relieved and are planning for another child soon; they still have screened embryos, George said.
The rise in disease prevention is fueling these startups' growth. Beyond identifying potential health issues, founders anticipate a significant reduction in pregnancy loss for couples undergoing IVF. Certain research indicates that chromosomal irregularities account for roughly half of miscarriages in the first trimester, and the aim is for screening to help individuals select embryos with the highest probability of a successful pregnancy.
But the use cases that scientists and ethicists fret about aren’t quite here—yet. “Even the most optimistic folks—and I think scientists and most geneticists are way too optimistic—think they can account for, oh, three or four IQ points,” said End of Sex author Greely. “Plus, we know plenty of ways to improve IQ test results with things like good childhood nutrition, childhood vaccinations so kids don’t get sick, and parents who read to their kids.” Brains are incredibly complicated, he said, and may ultimately prove too complicated to screen for intelligence and qualities like extroversion.
“It makes great headlines, it makes great clickbait, it makes great dystopian science fiction,” said Greely. “But the designer baby idea? At least when you’re talking about behavioral traits, it’s not very plausible—at least for decades.”
However, considering the fervor and anticipation from the tech-savvy community keen on this emerging landscape, Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at NYU, points out a risk that some parents could perceive their offspring as commodities and possibly even “commercial failures.” He ponders the potential benefits for children. “When you start saying, ‘I tested you, and I have a certain outcome that I expect,’ you’re taking away the kids’ future,” stated Caplan. “You’re making them less free because you have expectations, and they better turn out that way.”
Victoria Fritz and her spouse, who utilized Herasight to examine embryos in an effort to avoid transmitting her Type 1 diabetes, are planning an embryo transfer for January and are pragmatic regarding the possibility.
“I feel like, regardless of what embryo we choose, we will hopefully have a happy, healthy child and be a happy family regardless,” said Fritz. The screening provides peace of mind, she noted, but “it doesn’t guarantee that your child is going to have a perfect, healthy life.”