Bar-coding embryos - the new frontier

We've heard about horrible stories where embryos were transferred to the wrong mom. Now scientists have an answer - they are proposing bar-coding embryos.

Researchers from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Spain have just finished testing a method for imprinting microscopic bar codes on mouse embryos -- a procedure they plan to test soon on humans. The venture is meant to avoid mismatches during in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer procedures.

The process involves injecting the bar codes, made from silicon, in the perivitelline space of embryos, the space between an embryo’s cell membrane and its protective outer cover, known as the zona pellucida. When the embryo attaches to the uterine wall, it frees itself from the zona pellucida, and the codes are meant to disappear right along with it, the researchers say.

My take on it? Just because we can, doesn't mean we should. Intelligent but very unnecessary. The best bar code each embryo has is its own genomic one that no one can change or alter. There is no way that anyone can convince me that the introduced foreign particles into the embryo will not have some effect on the survival or differentiation of the developing embryo. Too invasive and a bit risky!