World's first IVF baby now 11 months old

The world’s first IVF baby born after preimplantation genome sequencing is now 11 months old, healthy and developing normally.

On August 24, 2012, the world’s first IVF baby sequenced before implantation was born in Hunan Province, China.

Five days after fertilization in vitro, 7 embryos were biopsied and all samples were shipped to BGI for preimplantation sequencing.

Based on a combination of NGS and bioinformatics analysis, 3 embryos were found to have normal chromosomal content and two of them were selected for transfer resulting in pregnancy.

The baby is now 11 months old, healthy and developing normally.

On the 29th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) London, July 7-11, 2013, research findings of BGI and CITIC- XIANGYA were presented in the lecture of Dr. Jian Li and colleagues from BGI, creating considerable acknowledgement among experts worldwide.

Professor Guangxiu Lu, President of CITIC XIANGYA and one of the founders and pioneers in human assisted reproduction in China called the birth as a landmark event in human IVF.

As sequencing is the most accurate method for detection of genetic anomalies, doctors can transfer the best embryos of the cohort, this way pregnancy rates may be increased and the chance of abnormalities of genetic origin decreased.