Name: New embryo testing predicts lifespan, height and IQ
Uploaded: 2025-11-08T22:09:22.665Z
Duration: 8 min 25 s
Description: Herasight is a genetic screening company that charges $50,000 to allow hopeful parents to analyze embryos for genetic information like lifespan, height and IQ in life.

Herasight is a genetic screening company that charges $50,000 to allow hopeful parents to analyze embryos for genetic information like lifespan, height and IQ in life.

A company called Heracite has introduced advanced embryo testing that enables parents to select embryos based on polygenic risk scores for health conditions, as well as projected traits like height and IQ. The service, which has been used by about 80 couples and recently became available to the public, combines parental and embryo DNA to generate detailed reports that estimate disease risk, lifespan, and cognitive potential for each embryo.

While proponents argue that this technology could lead to healthier and smarter future generations, critics highlight significant ethical concerns, including increased socioeconomic disparities and the accuracy of trait predictions. The technology is largely unregulated in the United States, and similar services are emerging from other startups, fueling debate over the future of human reproduction and genetic selection.

New embryo testing predicts lifespan, height and IQ

with advances in genetic testing that can give parents incredible insights into the traits of their future children. Families can not only screen for the likelihood of disease, but also pick embryos based on their expected height and IQ. Brooke Silva Braga got special access to Hericide, a company pushing the scientific and ethical limits of embryo selection. Brooke, good morning. Good morning. Well, this process involves a couple using IVF to create embryos in a lab, then analyzing the embryo's DNA before picking which one to implant. Hericide says it's offered their service to about 80 couples over the last two years while in stealth mode. Now they're open to the public with hopes of making humanity healthier and smarter. I'm excited. Yeah, me too. We were there as Marshall and Victoria Fritz joined a video call. There we go. With genetic counselor, Warren Moisey. Hello, Victoria and Marshall. To learn what life might be like for the 11 embryos they've created in three rounds of IVF. We'll go over your embryo results. All right, what we've been waiting for. Hericide charges $50,000 for this report, but gave the Fritz's half off for agreeing to share information about their future kids. It's still their biggest purchase yet as newlyweds, but they're doing this because Victoria has type one diabetes and is afraid of giving it to her kids. So the first thing she wanted to know was each embryo's risk. Lowest risk embryo for type one diabetes is basically just below 0.2%. And then the highest risk one is a 12.1%. The report filled with line graphs and bar charts gives polygenic risk scores for 18 health conditions, then adds up the numbers and estimates the impact on how long each possible person would live. From the lowest scoring embryo, there's almost a three year difference. If that was all Hericide did, it would still be controversial, but they're offering much more, including the projected height of each potential child. Yeah, so your embryos have quite a bit of distribution. And believe it or not, they're expected IQ. The one that has a highest prediction for IQ is 21 points more than the one with lowest. We're not gonna tell you which one to implant, but we're gonna give you all this information. And then what you're gonna do is rank the embryos according to what you think is important. Jonathan Anomaly is Hericide's director of communications. We met him at their lab in North Carolina's Research Triangle. This is where customers send their at-home test kit. The parents' DNA results are then combined with genetic information from the embryos to create the polygenic score. And this week, Hericide announced what they're calling a breakthrough, the ability to create those scores using just an embryo's basic PGTA data, which most IVF patients already have. That opens the door to much wider use of the tech. Thank you very much for joining today, our all-hands meeting. This potentially revolutionary company has just 27 employees, most of whom work from home. It's interesting and seems maybe not coincidental that this isn't some big pharma company doing this. It's, I don't know if it'd be insulted by the phrase ragtag, but it's like literally a couple dozen people without a big office. That's exactly right. We hired the best people we could find in their positions who are also willing to put everything on the line for this What does that mean, put everything on the line? This is considered controversial among some people, not everyone certainly, but if you go all in on this, you know there's gonna be a little bit of controversy associated with this, and there has been. Controversy may be an understatement. Using genetics to supposedly improve who was born was the premise of forced sterilization laws in 20th century America and mass murder in Nazi Germany. This is entirely different, Hericide says, because parents are choosing to do it, not being coerced. Though Anomaly concedes, that means those who don't choose to do it will be left behind, as will those who can't afford it. Everything has a trade-off, right? Every policy does. There are winners and losers to policies and so on. But it's an acceptable trade-off that rich people get smarter kids than poor people. That's a trade-off we're gonna have to live with. Well, we live with it right now. So when you allow people- Not genetically, though. Yes, genetically. Because you're gonna say assortive mating and smart people are with smart people. But that's different. The smart people and the smart people roll their dice and the other folks roll their dice and everyone sees what the dice is. This is the rich people get to get a few rolls. Poor people, no, you get the one roll. Well, the dice are loaded by those choices. But you're double-loading them. You have to acknowledge you're loading them twice. That's true, we're loading them a bit more. And so what I would say- And why is that okay? Because on net, this is really good for the world. That's because all these smarter, healthier babies will make for a better society, he says. But whether or not that's true, Dr. Todd Lenz would like to pour some cold water over all of this. The neuroscientist at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research says, sure, polygenic scores look promising for some less genetically complex conditions, like type 1 diabetes, but for most things, he doubts the scores are accurate enough to reliably compare individual embryos. There's a lot of room for error in these predictions. When he looks at Marshall and Victoria's IQ report, what he sees is uncertainty. They're predicting that this one particular embryo, for example, will have an IQ of 119. That sounds pretty good, but what they're also showing in somewhat subtle lines is that that's plus or minus about 20 points, that it's gonna be somewhere between a 98 and 143. There's even a 10% chance that it'll be outside of that range. That's critical information for us to be able to decide whether this is ready for prime time. Heracite acknowledges uncertainty in the scores, but says their model is the most accurate available. There's a race going on in Silicon Valley among these startups. Tech reporter Ashley Vance has interviewed many of the major players in this space. This is all that the old school testing will tell you. Besides Heracite, there's Genomic Prediction and ORCID. Both of them say they'll never do traits like IQ, but the startup Nucleus is not only reporting on intelligence like Heracite, but eye color too. You can understand your options with Nucleus Embryo. In Silicon Valley, Vance says the idea of making a baby the old-fashioned way is already falling out of fashion. The people that I hang out with and interview all the time, I mean, this is just like accepted. We're heading towards most people are gonna have babies via IVF. They're going to do this type of selection. If they had the chance to have a child in an artificial womb, they would absolutely take it. And it's like a total rethinking of the way we would have kids. I mean, it's something that is like so obviously part of the human condition, but also part of like our culture and our mythology and everything we kind of consider to be human would be changing. There are a few countries that have made this illegal, but in the U.S., there are basically no restrictions on this type of testing. It is so fascinating. I mean, you understand for disease why people would want to choose the most healthy embryo potentially, but when you look at some of these other factors, it is raising those moral and ethical questions. And we've gone down that road before and it has not been a good outcome. We should also point out, there are other technologies coming. People are working on editing embryos and people are also working on a way of using stem cells to create potentially thousands of embryos for a couple. And that would allow a much greater level of selection for people that go down this road. Really fascinating, Brooke, just touching the surface. Great, great story, Brooke. Thank you guys, always a pleasure.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration could temporarily withhold SNAP benefits after a previous judge ordered the White House to provide full federal food benefits to states by Friday.

Washington

Latest Supreme Court ruling adds to shutdown confusion

Satellite imagery is showing details of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan amid the country's ongoing civil war. People in al-Fashir were shot in the streets, targeted in drone strikes, crushed by trucks and abducted, witnesses have said after the RSF, violently seized the Sudanese city.

Al Fashir

Satellite imagery shows horrors in Sudan

At least 14 people were killed in the UPS cargo plane crash near the Louisville International Airport on Tuesday, officials said. UPS and FedEx announced they were grounding their fleets of McDonnell Douglas MD-11 planes "out of an abundance of caution."

Louisville

At least 14 people killed in UPS plane crash, officials say

A deadly typhoon has hit Vietnam after wreaking havoc in the Philippines, where more than a hundred are dead and the number is expected to climb.

Hanoi

Typhoon Kalmaegi pounds Vietnam, death toll rising

In the U.S., more than 1,000 flights were cancelled and thousands more delayed as the Federal Aviation Administration struggles with the impacts of the 37-day government shutdown that left air traffic controllers without pay.

Los Angeles International Airport

Flight cancellations expanding fast due to U.S government shutdown

Ukraine says Russian drone and missile attacks have killed at least three people and damaged energy facilities in three regions. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has admitted his forces are facing a “difficult situation” holding back Russian troops in the strategic city of Pokrovsk.

Pokrovsk

Ukraine Invasion

Deaths, injuries after Russia hits residential and energy sites in Ukraine

Colombia is once again at the centre of the global drug debate. Under President Gustavo Petro, the government has vowed to move away from decades of U.S-backed eradication efforts. But as coca cultivation expands to record levels, Washington’s pressure is mounting.

Bogotá

Tensions growing between U.S and Colombia

Hamas says it's retrieved the remains of an Israeli soldier from a tunnel near Rafah. It's believed to be the body of officer Hadar Goldin. He's one of the five remaining captives meant to be returned to Israel, under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Tel Aviv-Yafo

Middle East Conflict

Hamas locates body of deceased Israeli soldier

The United States will officially boycott the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa, escalating a diplomatic dispute by reiterating his controversial claims about the treatment of white farmers in the country and calling the choice of host "a complete disgrace".

Cape Town

U.S. to boycott G20 summit in South Africa over abuse claims

A tornado accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain struck the southern Brazilian state of Parana, killing at least six people, the state government said on Saturday.

Guarapuava

Six killed after tornado lashes Brazil, hundreds injured

The Hungarian leader said he has managed to convince US President Donald Trump to grant his country a full exemption from sanctions for the purchase of Russian energy, after detailing to him the dire consequences it would have on the Hungarian people.

Trump to grant Hungary exemption from sanctions on Russian energy

World leaders are gathering at the heart of the Amazon for global climate summit COP30 in Belem, Brazil, with Earth set to surpass 1.5 C of warming in the next decade, a climate change skeptic in the White House and worry that global co-operation to fight climate change is collapsing.

Belém

World leaders gather in Brazil for COP30 climate summit

Tesla shareholders approved a historic pay package worth one trillion dollars to the company's CEO, Elon Musk. At the company's annual meeting they paved the way for Musk to become the world's first trillionaire.

San Francisco

Tesla approves $1 trillion pay deal for CEO Elon Musk

The White House meeting came after Trump managed to at least temporarily ease tensions between the U.S. and China over the export of rare earth metals, a major source of contention in their trade talks.

Trump hails Central Asian leaders to forge critical mineral ties

Sudan's army rebuffed a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire and said it will rally public support to fight rebels who've captured much of the western half of the country.

Johannesburg

Sudan army rebuffs U.S. ceasefire proposal, prepares to fight on

The U.S. Senate narrowly voted 51-49 to block a resolution that sought to prevent President Donald Trump from launching strikes on Venezuela without congressional approval. The measure, led by Senators Tim Kaine, Adam Schiff, and Rand Paul, followed reports that U.S. forces have carried out at least 16 strikes on boats off Venezuela since September, killing more than 65 people.

Washington County

U.S. war on drugs: Senate republicans block move to stop boat attacks

In a video letter to her constituents, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi ended months of speculation about her political future, announcing she would not seek reelection to Congress. Elected in 1987, Pelosi would become the most powerful women in politics as the first female House speaker.

Nancy Pelosi announces retirement after historic career in Congress

Israel’s military says it has begun conducting “a wave of strikes” targeting Hezbollah military sites in southern Lebanon.

Tyre

Israel launched ‘wave of strikes’ in southern Lebanon despite truce

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to submit proposals to potentially resume testing nuclear weapons. This comes after President Trump directed the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing "on an equal basis" with other countries.

Moscow

Putin orders proposals for resuming nuclear weapons testing

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments challenging President Trump's authority to impose sweeping tariffs on foreign countries, with justices expressing skepticism about whether such actions fall within presidential powers or infringe on congressional authority over taxation.

Global Tariffs

Supreme Court justices appear skeptical of Trump's tariffs policies

The US government shutdown is now in its 36th day—a record-breaking length. While both political parties blame each other, the result is being felt by the public. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are going without pay, and government programs like food benefits have been slashed.

Republicans and Democrats trade blame as shutdown drags on

At least 90 people in the central Philippines have died in floods and heavy rains caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi. 75 others are missing. Tens of thousands have been evacuated after rains flooded homes and streets, swept away vehicles and left people trapped on their roofs.

Manila

Dozens killed as Typhoon Kalmaegi hits central Philippines

President Trump hosted a breakfast for Republican senators at the White House on Wednesday morning, where he urged them to end the filibuster as the government shutdown hits a historical milestone.

Trump doubles down on Republicans as government shutdown makes history

At least nine people were killed, officials say, after a UPS cargo plane crashed near the airport in Louisville, Kentucky. Video shows the jet's left wing on fire as it tries to take off before quickly losing altitude and exploding.

Video shows moment UPS plane crashes in Kentucky, killing nine

People around the world are reacting to Zohran Mamdani's win in the New York City mayoral race against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa. CBS News' Ramy Inocencio spoke to Mamdani's mentor in his native Uganda about the election results.

New York

World reacts to Zohran Mamdani's win in NYC mayoral race

Typhoon Kalmaegi left a trail of destruction in the central Philippines, as the powerful storm unleashed heavy rains and floods across Visayas islands region. It's now headed towards the South China Sea and Vietnam where preparations are underway ahead of its expected landfall.

Visayas

Deadly Typhoon Kalmaegi lashes Philippines, heads towards Vietnam

A centuries-old legislative practice in the U.S Senate is being blamed as the latest roadblock in resolving the federal government shutdown. That shutdown is now in its 35th day—equaling the longest in the country's history.

Filibuster blamed for deepening U.S government shutdown

Injuries have been reported after a UPS plane crashed near the Louisville International Airport on Tuesday, officials said.

Breakdown