The CEO of a U.S.-based biotech company that developed software to enable parents to select embryos used for in vitro fertilization (IVF) based on genetic markers, told Newsweek that this “genetic optimization” would help people “live longer and thrive.”
Kian Sadeghi created his DNA testing and analysis company Nucleus to “give parents direct insights into whatever matters most to them when they choose their embryo.”
Nucleus offers the world’s first genetic optimization software that allows parents to have preferences over their child’s genetics during the IVF process, with the aim of reducing preventable genetic disease.
“There’s no moment when parents need to know how genetics will impact them and their loved ones more than when they’re preparing to start a family,” Sadeghi said.
Genetic disease impacts millions of children in the U.S., with Down syndrome, Thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease and sickle cell disease among the most common.
As well as screening for these sorts of conditions, Nucleus also analyses embryos for chronic conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease.
In total, it checks for almost 1,000 traits and conditions, from cystic fibrosis to heart disease, cancer risks, and mental health conditions like anxiety and ADHD.
Sadeghi said that many families “have experienced death at the hands of these common conditions and seek to prevent similar suffering.”
He told Newsweek that his own experience of the loss and grief brought on by genetic disease was actually what guided him to set up his company.
When he was 7 years old, his 15 year-old cousin suddenly died in her sleep from what he said was a “preventable genetic disease.”
“My parents were heartbroken and terrified that my siblings and I would have the same fate,” he said.
Being so young at the time, Sadeghi said “it didn’t make sense to me why someone would drop dead at 15, when other 15-year-olds are fine.”
He said that the loss of his cousin was the the first time he “intuitively grasped this idea of generational health.”
“Seeing this genetic lottery, when someone wins and someone doesn’t, really stuck with me,” he said.
As he grew up, he developed a keen interest in genetics in school and by the time he got to college he was determined to create software that “could prevent what happened to my family from happening to anyone else in the world.”
After dropping out of the University of Pennsylvania, he then set up Nucleus in 2020, and believes that his software will spare families from the grief he himself felt when he lost a loved one to a preventable genetic disease.
Sadeghi added that his company is “democratizing access to genetic information,” as at the moment, he said genetic testing results can be hard to decipher without a clear explanation from a doctor.
“We’re putting comprehensive, actionable data directly in parents’ hands with tools that let them actually understand and compare their options,” Sadeghi said.
However, given that the software allows parents to genetically “optimize” their children, it raises various ethical questions, ones which members of the public have taken to social media to ask.
Some social media users on X, formerly known as Twitter, voiced their concern that genetic screening could have unknown, secondary impacts, while others criticized Nucleus for oversimplifying the issue, saying “we can’t predict longevity even for adults, so how can we possibly do this for embryos.”
Discussing ethical issues raised by the public, Sadeghi said, “until now, how this science would impact how we have children and how we would deploy it has been discussed only behind closed doors—not in public.”
He said now that Nucleus has announced the availability of the technology, the public has the opportunity to “listen to each other, hear each other out, and use this information to establish their views to ensure the insight Nucleus Embryo can provide is put to good use.”
Sadeghi added that the best way to have the public understand the technology was “to have them use it,” and that it was important to make it accessible to as many people as possible.
There have also been concerns raised about whether genetically optimizing IQ in embryos could increase risk of mental health conditions like schizophrenia.
Sadeghi said that his company’s report on schizophrenia risk for embryos noted that the condition is linked to both bipolar disorder, as well as intelligence, and that ADHD, OCD, Alzheimer’s disease and autism were also linked to intelligence.
He added that “we always educate parents on links between high disposition to neurological diseases and exceptional traits.”
“When you analyze genes for disease risk, you’re also uncovering insights into traits, since both share a common genetic foundation,” he said.
The software, while being offered to parents to help them prevent their children from developing genetic disease, therefore does come with ethical considerations—considerations which will continue to be explored and discussed in public, now that the technology has brought the issue into the spotlight.
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