Footballers and their extravagant parties: Dwarf-tossing, dressing up as a Klansman and FIVE-DAY benders… how Lamine Yamal isn't the first star to land himself in trouble for wild celebrations
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Woman using weight loss jab Mounjaro reveals shocking side effect that left her permanently struggling to eat
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Crowds chant 'protect our kids' at Epping asylum seeker hotel protest
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'Inside the Silicon Valley Push to Breed Super-Babies'
San Francisco-based startup Orchid Health "screens embryos for thousands of potential future illnesses," reports the Washington Post, calling it "the first company to say it can sequence an embryo's entire genome of 3 billion base pairs."
It uses as few as five cells from an embryo to test for more than 1,200 of these uncommon single-gene-derived, or monogenic, conditions. The company also applies custom-built algorithms to produce what are known as polygenic risk scores, which are designed to measure a future child's genetic propensity for developing complex ailments later in life, such as bipolar disorder, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, obesity and schizophrenia. Orchid, [founder Noor] Siddiqui said in a tweet, is ushering in "a generation that gets to be genetically blessed and avoid disease." Right now, at $2,500 per embryo-screening on top of the average $20,000 for a single cycle of IVF, Siddiqui's social network in Silicon Valley and other tech hubs is an ideal target market...
Yet several genetic scientists told The Post they doubt Orchid's core claim: that it can accurately sequence an entire human genome from just five cells collected from an early-stage embryo, enabling it to see many more single- and multiple-gene-derived disorders than other methods have. Experts have struggled to extract accurate genetic information from small embryonic samples, said Svetlana Yatsenko, a Stanford University pathology professor who specializes in clinical and research genetics. Genetic tests that use saliva or blood samples typically collect hundreds of thousands of cells. For its vastly smaller samples, Orchid uses a process called amplification, which creates copies of the DNA retrieved from the embryo. That process, Yatsenko said, can introduce major inaccuracies. "You're making many, many mistakes in the amplification," she said, rendering it problematic to declare any embryo free of a particular disease, or positive for one. "It's basically Russian roulette...."
Numerous fertility doctors and scientists also told The Post they have serious reservations about screening embryos through polygenic risk scoring, the technique that allows Orchid and other companies to predict future disease by tying clusters of hundreds or even thousands of genes to disease outcomes and in some cases to other traits, such as intelligence and height. The vast majority of diseases that afflict humans are associated with many different genes rather than a single gene... And for traits such as intelligence, polygenic scoring has almost negligible predictive capacity — just a handful of IQ points... Or parents might select against an unwanted trait, such as schizophrenia, without understanding how they may be screening out desired traits associated with the same genes, such as creativity... The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics calls the benefits of screening embryos for polygenic risks "unproven" and warns that such tests "should not be offered" by clinicians. A pioneer of polygenic risk scores, Harvard epidemiology professor Peter Kraft, has criticized Orchid, saying on X that "the science doesn't add up" and that "waving a magic wand and changing some of these variants at birth may not do anything at all."
The article notes several startups are already providing predictions on intelligence. "In the United States, there are virtually no restrictions on the types of genetic predictions companies can offer, and no external vetting of their proprietary scoring methods."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Worrying sign Aaron and Denise's marriage was toxic as insider reveals what it was really like on their reality show
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Anti-semitism now rife in schools, with pupils chanting 'free Palestine' and 'f*** the Jews', teachers warn
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Many Essex roads to close next month including road shutting for more than 45 days
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MP attends opening of new Hindu temple in Hatfield Peverel
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SHANE WATSON: I'm a fashion expert - and these are the best anti-ageing buys to get in the summer sales this year... if you're quick
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UK's ninth richest billionaire cashes out and puts £250million London mansion up for sale after declaring 'Britain has gone to hell'
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Ore Oduba breaks down in tears as presenter admits he's 'ashamed and embarrassed' after being scammed in elaborate online hoax
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The REAL victims of the Coldplay kiss cam scandal: Andy Byron's wife and Kristin Cabot's husband take action after humiliation on screen
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UK asylum seekers are trying to get double benefit payments by claiming in Ireland AND Britain
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I thought I drank like all the other mothers who brought wine to playdates. Then I did something to my baby that I'll never forgive myself for
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Clarkson's Farm star, who grew up wanting to be a 'ballerina', could make a fortune as show's break-out star
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