"Fetal cells circulate in maternal blood and have a great diagnostic potential". This is a fact known to scientists for many decades. However, the difficulty in isolating fetal cells, due to their rarity and to the absence of fetal cell specific markers, has kept their diagnostic potential at bay. The goal of FCMB is to develop a method to isolate rare fetal cells from maternal blood, which can be used for subsequent genetic analyses.

Current invasive procedures, such as Chorionic Villi Sampling (CVS) and Amniocentesis, carry a certain risk of abortion. The scientists at FCMB aim to develop an alternative no-risk method which will provide pregnant women with accurate genetic information of their unborn child.

Fetal diagnostics based on a blood sample from the mother bear no risk, neither for the mother nor for the child. It provides pregnant women with information very much similar to what is obtained by CVS or amniocentesis, but without the risk of inducing an unintended abortion.