Nucleus Genomics

Nucleus Genomics was founded in New York in 2020 by Kian Sadeghi, who was at the time a 20-year-old computational biology dropout from the University of Pennsylvania.^[3] Sadeghi was a recipient of the Thiel Fellowship.^[5] After establishing the company, Sadeghi raised about $32 million in funding, including from Peter Thiel, Balaji Srinivasan, and Alexis Ohanian's venture capital company.^[2][6][7]

The company states that it uses what it calls "genetic optimization" in order to estimate the likelihood of a number of genetic traits of an embryo, including its IQ score, eye and hair color, height, and its predisposition to having certain diseases, such as autism, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer. The company adds its embryo polygenic scoring to the conventional PGT analyses done by other labs.^[2][8][4][9] The results are then presented to the prospective parents, who have the option of choosing what embryos they intend to use.^[2]

In 2025, the company launched a "multiplayer mode" feature for prospective parents to assess how their DNA would align. According to Sadeghi, the feature examines "a couple's DNA, and we calculate their risk of passing down over 900 different conditions to their children".^[10]

The company acquired Irish biotech Cambrean, an AI health-data platform, in early 2025.^[11]

Nucleus Genomics has raised $32 million across multiple funding rounds. In January 2025, the company raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.^[12][13] Founders Fund, Asylum Ventures, Seven Seven Six, Samsung Next, and One Eight Capital are reported as investors.^[14]

As of March 2026, the company had expanded its services to India, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. A number of its services have been limited in India and the United Kingdom, where selecting embryos based on certain characteristics is illegal. The company has also stated that a number of models its technologies are based on have been made publicly available for third-party review.^[15]

Writing for the Scientific American, bioethicist Arthur Kaplan and geneticist James Tabery wrote that Nucleus Genomics' products do not do what the company claims. Kaplan and Tabery compared Sadeghi to Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who they said was also a university dropout who exaggerated her company's abilities.^[1][4]

Kaplan and Tabery wrote that, although certain genetic variants have been shown to have varying correlations with some expressed human traits, research has consistently shown that there are no major genetic markers for traits such as intelligence, body-mass index or longevity.^[1]

In an article published by The Times, Tabery said that "[i]f Nucleus really lets you optimise your potential child's" human traits, "then there would be some deep ethical questions to ask about designer babies, the legacy of eugenics and the marketisation of children." Cambridge University geneticist Ruxandra Teslo said that Nucleus Genomics was a "non-rigorous company", adding that people should "speak out against this misuse of science".^[4]

Education scholar Ben Williamson said that Nucleus Genomics was promoting "bad science as big business".^[16] Harvard Medical School associate professor Sasha Gusev stated about the company that "It was extremely obvious from the start that Nucleus had no idea what they were doing and were selling snake oil."^[4] He said, referring to the company's service of assessing the risks of a child of two prospective parents developing certain diseases, that "This idea of partner screening before even having kids is relatively new and is not a use that has been offered. We are many steps away from where this is real and actionable."^[10]

American geneticist Eric Turkheimer has described Nucleus Genomics as a "new eugenics compan[y]".^[17] Sadeghi said that the company's "genetic optimization" test is not eugenics "by any stretch, because it's fundamentally about empowering people with information that they can use to give their child the best start in life".^[8] He also claimed in a video that his company was the first in history to help prospective parents "optimize their embryos based on intelligence".^[16]

In November 2026, Nucleus launched the Have Your Best Baby advertising campaign, promoting its embryo analysis services. The ad campaign received widespread attention and criticism.^[18]