“We’re already designing babies, why can’t we just CRISPR them up?"

Dr. Patsama Vichinsartvichai

Summary:

Genetic disorders can manifest before, right after birth, or onset later in life. It creates a huge lifetime financial burden (direct and indirect costs) to their family and also the healthcare system. Currently, a significant number of genetic disorders have no effective treatment. We will discuss the prevention of genetic disorders available nowadays from preimplantation genetic test to prenatal test regardless of its
invasiveness.

PGD has advanced the field of genetic testing significantly but has
also raised concerns regarding eugenics and genetic discrimination. Should a designer baby be a real issue? The emerging technology for gene editing has been in the spotlight recently and creates a hot discussion throughout the related scientific field. Will gene editing techniques such as CRISPR solve genetic disorders?
Which is better? Prevention or correction?

Dr. Pat obtained his OBGYN specialty and REI subspecialty from Mahidol
University. After maturing his global experience from Gynecologic Endoscopic surgery from the European Academy of Gynaecological Surgery in Belgium, and Master of Clinical Embryology from Monash University in Australia, he currently works as a Chief of Reproductive Medicine Unit at Faculty of Medicine Vajira Hospital, Navamindradhiraj University, and a medical director at INSPIRE IVF at Ploenchit Center trying to help patients and also conduct researches in fertility
treatment and fertility preservation.