A new noninvasive prenatal test

The molecular diagnostics company Aria Diagnostics has announced a non-invasive approach to test cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in maternal blood for two common fetal trisomies linked to genetic disorders. As published in the journal Prenatal Diagnosis, Aria Diagnostics' highly multiplexed assay, known as Digital Analysis of Selected Regions (DANSR™), was able to correctly identify all confirmed cases of Trisomy 21 (associated with Down syndrome) and Trisomy 18 (associated with Edwards syndrome) in 298 pregnant women. In contrast to other cfDNA testing, Aria's method is more efficient and selective in analyzing genetic material, which leads to a greater than tenfold improvement on the sequencing throughput. This new method could potentially provide parents with more information about their pregnancy, without the need for invasive testing.