Naturally Acquired Microchimerism in Pregnancy: Non-invasive Prenatal Testing from Myth to Reality

The flow of circulating fetal nucleic acids (cfNA) in maternal circulation provides a unique opportunity towards the development of Non Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) techniques to identify and control gestational diseases and disorders. However, the requirement of specialist and costly equipment limits the broad implementation of existing techniques. Microfluidics, the precise manipulation of fluid at the microscale, is an enabling technology which may overcome some of the current NIPT challenges and deliver faster results at a cheaper cost. This talk will discuss the need for near-patient tools in the context of NIPT and present a novel and direct microfluidic cfNA sample preparation.