Pregnancy Biomarkers for Advanced Warning

By Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick
Twitter: @drnic1
Host of Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist#TheIncrementalist

On this episode I talked to Maneesh Jain, PhD CEO of Mirvie (@mirviedx) that is bringing a level of personalization and safety to pregnancy with a revolutionary approach.

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Maneesh has an interesting back story that started as we unraveled the human genome and shares some important insights about that early work and the over-promised potential that was celebrated, but as he points out we had one, just one human genome sequenced.

We discuss the declining state of maternal health in this country of diseases and conditions that the vast majority are preventable yet we fail to catch them. As he shares

80 of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.

We dive into the science of sequencing and the specific use case that looks at mRNA. In their research (RNA profiles reveal signatures of future health and disease in pregnancy and LB 2: Early prediction of spontaneous preterm birth in a high-risk population using cfRNA profiling) they detail the ability to clearly identify future health problems in pregnancy some 3 months before they are clinically detectable in the mother.

Listen in to hear what mothers’ perspective is on having this information and the amazing opportunities that lie ahead as we learn to apply this technology to other areas.

This article was originally published on the Dr. Nick – The Incrementalist blog and is republished here with permission.

About the Show
For years Dr. Nick van Terheyden aka Dr. Nick, has served as a voice on the impact of new technologies on healthcare, earning a reputation as a leading authority on where the future of medicine is going. Combining powers of observation and real world experience, Dr. Nick has seen many predictions come true and makes the case that innovations in healthcare can be accomplished incrementally, not just by moonshot events. Tune in to hear Dr. Nick: The Incrementalist and his guests discuss what the future of healthcare looks like, how we will get there, and what it will take to improve healthcare for all.

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