Nucleus
The Company Behind the First Genetically Engineered Embryo Selection Platform
Nucleus Genomics is a biotechnology company at the forefront of reproductive genetics, recently making headlines for launching Nucleus Embryo, a software platform that enables prospective parents to analyze and select embryos based on an unprecedented breadth of genetic information during IVF procedures.
What Is Nucleus Embryo?
Nucleus Embryo is described as the first genetic optimization software for IVF, allowing parents to examine the full genetic profile of up to 20 embryos at once. The platform screens for over 900 hereditary conditions, including cancers, chronic diseases, and age-related illnesses, as well as 40 additional analyses that go beyond basic viability.
These include risks for mental health issues (like depression and schizophrenia), cognitive traits (such as predicted IQ), and physical characteristics (height, BMI, eye and hair color, and more).
The software generates a comprehensive report for each embryo, including a polygenic risk score that estimates the likelihood of developing specific traits or conditions. Genetic counseling is available to help parents interpret these findings.
How Is This Different from Existing IVF Genetic Testing?
Traditional IVF genetic testing typically screens embryos for chromosomal abnormalities or known single-gene disorders (like cystic fibrosis or Down syndrome). Nucleus Embryo goes much further by leveraging whole-genome sequencing and advanced polygenic risk modeling to provide insights into complex traits and late-onset diseases, as well as non-medical characteristics.
The Company and Its Founder
Nucleus Genomics was founded by Kian Sadeghi, a 25-year-old entrepreneur with a personal motivation rooted in family tragedy. A cousin who died young from a preventable genetic disease. The company launched in 2021, initially focusing on DNA testing for disease risk in adults, and has rapidly expanded its offerings to include comprehensive embryo analysis.
Nucleus Offers
Comprehensive Screening: Over 900 diseases and 40+ additional traits analyzed per embryo.
Longevity and Health: The platform predicts the likelihood of age-related diseases, aiming to help parents choose embryos with the best prospects for a long, healthy life.
Cognitive and Physical Traits: Includes predictions for intelligence, appearance, and mental health risks.
Regulatory and Clinical Standards: Nucleus claims its tests are physician-ordered, sequenced in the U.S., and conducted in CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited labs.
Cost: The service is currently priced at $5,999.
The First Publicly Announced “Genetically Optimized” Embryo
Nucleus claims to be the first company to openly partner with a couple to select and optimize an embryo based on predicted intelligence, marking a significant, and controversial, milestone in reproductive technology. The company’s announcement has sparked debate about the ethics and societal implications of selecting embryos for non-medical traits.
You were an Analog Girl living in a Gattaca World
The ability to select for cognitive or physical traits, in particular, raises concerns about “designer babies” and the potential for new forms of discrimination.
Take the award winning 1997 movie Gattaca for example (The film's title is based on the letters G, A, T, and C, which stand for guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine, the four nucleobases of DNA.)
The film presents a future society driven by eugenics where children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents.
The principal character, Vincent Freeman, played by Hawke, was conceived outside the eugenics program and struggles to overcome genetic discrimination to realize his dream of going into space.
That being said, my take is that the emergence of this technology is a positive shift. As mentioned, the founder who created the company and its mission after losing a cousin to a preventable genetic disease.
Parents setting their children up for success is nothing new. Investments in education, diet, quality time, and extra curriculars are at the heart of being a good parent. If you could ensure your children are not subject to preventable disease or mental health disorders, then why wouldn’t you?
In an age where some women want to be full time moms and others want to be full time boss’, IVF and surrogacy may hold more appeal for women who want children, but don’t want to sacrifice a thriving career. Feminism should be about having the ability to live life on your terms. Not being forced to follow a prescriptive path; be it stay-at-home-mom, girl boss, or anything in between.
My two cents on the “designer baby” claims is that no one, no matter how pretty, tall, or smart, is without insecurities. To think you could make a “perfect person” who would never suffer, is not what the company claims, nor is it attainable.
The technology is designed with the utilitarian function in mind to reduce the amount of suffering possible from preventable diseases for the most amount of people. And that is a worthy and admirable goal in my mind.
Conclusion
Nucleus Genomics isn’t just pushing the boundaries of reproductive science, it’s redrawing them.
For the first time, parents can choose embryos based on everything from health and lifespan, to intelligence and looks. It’s a breakthrough loaded with promise and peril, forcing society to ask:
how far are we willing to go to shape the future before it’s even born?
I would argue it has always been our job to be stewards of creation. To bring order to chaos. To reduce suffering and increase abundance. Nucleus if just the next step of that journey.
"And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’
—Genesis 1:28
Nothing new. It’s a “enhanced” selection process. This is being done by couples who are already having an issue conceiving. After paying for the selection, there is no guarantee that the embryo will become viable. I remember a conversation with a mom to be years ago about having the Amniocentesis test. She declined. Her statement was even if the test came back with a possibility of a defect, she would have done nothing. It’s a genetic crap shoot. Trying to “stack” the dice usually ends in disaster.
Very insightful and fascination article & software, but scary at the same time. Selective embryo options to result in the perfect child sounds a bit like entitlement but still rolling the dice as like everything in this world, nothing is truly perfect! It’s not an exact science which may lead to disappointment. Be careful what you wish for! Brave New World or was it 1984, or Animal Farm? Playing God regarding offspring selection, I’m not sold on yet. It’s not always a given.
I’m thrilled to have two incredible children, who luckily, came out just perfect without genetic selection.