Permission given to create Britain's first 'three-person babies'

Two women with gene mutation that causes degenerative disorder will undergo therapy

Doctors in Newcastle have been granted permission to create Britain’s first “three-person babies” for two women who are at risk of passing on devastating and incurable genetic diseases to their children.

The green light from the fertility regulator means that doctors at the Newcastle Fertility Centre will now attempt to make healthy embryos for the women by merging fertilised eggs created through standard IVF using DNA from female donors.

MRT is an experimental treatment that was made legal in Britain in 2015. It aims to prevent serious disorders from being passed to children, caused by mutations in mitochondria, tiny structures that provide energy inside cells. Children inherit all their mitochondria from their mothers. MRT uses healthy donor mitochondria to replace the faulty ones. The child therefore has the usual 46 chromosomes from its parents, plus additional DNA from the donor's mitochondria. To perform MRT doctors fertilise an egg from the affected woman with her partner's sperm using normal IVF techniques. But instead of letting the egg then develop into an embryo, the chromosomes are taken out and dropped into a healthy donor egg that has had its own chromosomes removed. The resulting embryo now has DNA from both parents, as usual, plus mitochondrial DNA from the donor.

Related: ‘Three-parent’ babies explained: what are the concerns and are they justified?

Continue reading... February 02, 2018 at 12:18AM