Description
The SAFE (Special Non-Invasive Advances in Fetal and Neonatal Evaluation) Network started on 1 March 2004, and is set to run for a period of 5 years. It is sponsored under the EU Framework 6 programme and has 50 partners from 19 countries currently participating. SAFE aims to lay the foundations for European advances in NIPD (Non Invasive Prenatal Diagnosis) and NS (Neonatal Screening). It is a programme designed to achieve intellectual and practical integration with a view to enhance the efficacy of NIPD and NS for genetic disorders within and beyond the European Community. This programme is interested in the use of cell-free circulatory fetal DNA as a screening tool to determine pregnancies at risk for heterozygous Mendelian genetic disorders, such as the haemoglobinopathies prevalent in large proportions of the European population.