This episode of the Progress Educational Trust (PET) podcast discusses the use of expanded carrier screening to test prospective parents, and/or donors of sperm or eggs, for gene variants that could potentially lead to ill health in future children.

The discussion – which originally took place at the PET Annual Conference – is chaired by Sarah Norcross (Director of PET), with contributions from:

⚫ Sara Levene (Consultant Genetic Counsellor and founder of Guided Genetics)

⚫ Professor Jackson Kirkman-Brown (Science Lead at the Birmingham Women's Fertility Centre)

⚫ Dr Heidi Mertes (Chair of Belgium's Federal Commission for Medical and Scientific Research on Embryos In Vitro)

⚫ Professor Cathy Herbrand (Principal Investigator at PRECAS)

PET is grateful to Reproduction in the Age of Genomic Medicine: The Emergence, Commercialisation and Implications of PReconception Expanded CArrier Screening (PRECAS) – a project based at De Montfort University – for supporting this discussion.

PET is also grateful to Jon Nicoll, who created the opening and closing music for its podcast.

Register at https://www.progress.org.uk/events/upcoming-events/ for upcoming PET events.