Matchmaker, Matchmaker,Make me a match,
Find me a find, catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match
(Film :Fiddler on the Roof (1971))
Perfect 46 is a recent science fiction movie by Brett Ryan Bonowicz, centered around a personal genomics company named Perfect 46. Perfect 46 symbolizes 23 pairs of perfectly matching genes in a progeny. The Company counsels couple planning parenting hood and based on a unique algorithm suggest a perfect match between a donor and a receiver.
Well, there indeed is an element of truth in the story; given that the United States Patent Office has granted patents to this effect to two companies GenePeeks and 23andMe. The GenePeeks patent lists 14 claims and states that it addresses the need for methods of assessing the inheritance of such complex attributes prior to, or in place of, conception. and provides a pre-conception method for predicting the likelihood that a hypothetical child of any two persons, of opposite sex,or same sex, who may or may not be fertile , will express any trait or disease that is subject of genetic influences that have been previously characterized , completely or partially. This patent is the foundation of GenePeeks' Matchright™ Program. Perhaps 23andMe took a few more hasty steps towards what looked like eugenics and designer babies, but beat a quick retreat when USFDA imposed certain restrictions.
GenePeeks claims that its services are limited to identifying the probability of inherited diseases; as a screening tool to select suitable donor for a given receiver or vice versa . The CEO of the company Anne Morriss had to endure anxious moments because her baby was born with a rare genetic disorder called the MCADD ( medium chain acyl CoA dehydrogenase deficiency) which meant the baby's enzymatic apparatus couldn't digest fat. It was only later that she found that she as well as the sperm donor she had chosen, both carried this rare genetic trait. There are several hundred inheritable diseases but the probability of someone receiving defective genes from both parents is rather low. The question Anne asked was could this have been avoided? Sure, if she had prior knowledge of the genetic makeup of herself and the donor. That was the motivation for Anne Morriss and soon the company GenePeeks and the program Matchright™ became a reality with the active participation of molecular biologist Lee Silver. Matchright™ aims to completely eliminate the possibility of the Mendelian diseases in assisted reproduction technology by thorough genetic screening of the prospective donor/recipient pair for recessive genes. For the time being the capability of Matchright™ is limited to single gene defects but they hope to be able to confront in future more complex diseases such as diabetes, cancer, stroke etc. where multiple genes are implicated.
References:
Method and system for generating a virtual progeny genome
