Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for trisomies has dominated the obstetrics-related diagnostic headlines and masked the lack of development for diagnostics for other pregnancy-related conditions. While rapid adoption of NIPT is improving clinical obstetric care, clinicians see a desperate need for diagnostics development in the underserved areas of common, but adverse, conditions of pregnancy like preterm birth and preeclampsia. "NIPT has been driven by technological advancements. Next-generation sequencing has made it easier to get access to genetic information," Robin Tuytten, Ph.D., vice president research and development at Metabolomic Diagnostics (Ireland) tells DTET. "We can get our heads around it because screening for chromosomal aberrations builds off of existing tests in the market place." Louise Kenny, M.B.Ch.B., Ph.D., from Cork University Maternity Hospital in Ireland says that there has been nearly no new development of obstetrics screening tests, besides NIPT, in nearly 30 years. She acknowledges conditions like preeclampsia and preterm birth are complex syndromes, but have been neglected in terms of research and development by both public and private entities. Preterm Birth Experts say that costs associated with preterm birth are on average more than $54,000, or ten times higher than the cost of a baby delivered at full term. Preterm […]