Summary:
Yourgene Health has launched IONA Care+, a comprehensive non-invasive prenatal testing service in the UK, expanding its NIPT offerings to include microdeletion syndromes alongside trisomies and sex chromosome aneuploidies.
Takeaways:
- Expanded Screening Options – IONA Care+ builds on existing NIPT services by including tests for clinically relevant microdeletion syndromes.
- Advanced Technology – The service uses next-generation sequencing on a maternal blood sample from 10 weeks of gestation for safe and accurate results.
- Faster, Safer Results – Expectant parents receive results within 3–5 working days, reducing the need for invasive tests and associated risks.
Yourgene Health (part of the Novacyt group of companies), an international molecular diagnostics group, announced the launch of IONA Care+, a fully comprehensive non-invasive prenatal screening service for genetic conditions, in the UK. The service will utilize Yourgene’s IONA Nx NIPT Workflow to deliver safe, fast and accurate non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) results. This reduces the need for invasive tests and the associated risks, while helping to decrease stress and anxiety for expectant parents.
Prenatal Testing Service Builds on NIPT Offering
IONA Care+ builds upon Yourgene Genomic Services’ current NIPT offering, providing an extensive menu-based approach where expectant parents can select screening tests to measure the likelihood that a fetus is affected by a genetic condition. Yourgene’s NIPT Service screening menu includes Down’s, Edwards’ and Patau’s syndromes (trisomy 21, 18 and 13, respectively) and other autosomal aneuploidies and monosomies as well as sex chromosomal aneuploidies, such as Turner, Triple X, Klinefelter and Jacobs syndromes. With the launch of IONA Care+, the comprehensive menu now includes clinically relevant microdeletion syndromes, namely DiGeorge Syndrome, Prader-Willi, Angelman, 1p36 deletion, Cri-du-Chat and Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome.
NIPT Uses Next-Generation Sequencing
NIPT is performed on a small maternal blood sample from as early as 10 weeks gestation and uses next-generation sequencing to estimate the risk of a fetus being affected by a genetic condition. Expectant parents and healthcare professionals can choose the most suitable NIPT service from three different clinical options to suit their individual needs: the IONA test for the three most common trisomies including Down’s Syndrome, the IONA Care which includes trisomies and sex chromosome aneuploidies, and now the IONA Care+ which includes clinically relevant microdeletions. Screening results will be available from Yourgene Genomic Services’ laboratories in Manchester, UK within 3–5 working days via their local midwife or private clinic. The test is only available for singleton and monochorionic twin pregnancies.
“We are pleased to announce our newest service—the most comprehensive clinical menu in our portfolio of screening tests offered to pregnant women by our Genomic Services’ laboratories,” says Lyn Rees, CEO of Novacyt. “IONA Care+ is the extension of our NIPT Service portfolio running in our Manchester Service Laboratory. Yourgene Health launched the first CE-IVD NIPT in 2015, with the original IONA test, so it’s great to see us continuing to enhance the NIPT landscape 10 years later. We are very proud, once again, to be contributing to patient care where it’s needed and continue to work with healthcare professionals to provide high-quality and safe screening for pregnant women during their pregnancies.”
Featured Image: IONA Care+ builds upon Yourgene Genomic Services’ current NIPT offering, providing an extensive menu-based approach where expectant parents can select screening tests to measure the likelihood that a fetus is affected by a genetic condition. Photo: Yourgene
