Re: What does an embryologist do?

Hi Amanda,

Good question!

Thinking around this one a little there are two answers that I think can fit the bill nicely.

Firstly, a CLINICAL EMBRYOLOGIST would be someone who is involved in in vitro fertilisation and/or the genetic screening of embryos. An embryo's genetic make-up is sometimes screened to look for known 'bad' genes that cause debilitating, or even fatal, diseases.

Examples would be cystic fibrosis and Tay-Sachs syndrome. This can allow parents to potentially avoid having severely ill babies, or offspring that they know will suffer or die in childhood.

This, of course, raises ethical issues with some people and this website can give you a place to start on these.

Secondly, a RESEARCH EMBRYOLOGIST, now generally called a 'Developmental Biologist', would be someone who looks at how early embryos develop and how genes combine to get the eyes, ears, hair, hands and so on to be the right shape and in all the right places.

This is a good site to start checking this out.

I hope this helps you out.

Have fun!

Adrian