It is a major advance for the technique, called mitochondrial donation therapy, designed to prevent a life-limiting, often fatal, illness.
Eight babies have been born in the UK with DNA from three people following a procedure to eliminate an incurable inherited disease.
It is a major advance for the technique, called mitochondrial donation therapy, designed to prevent a life-limiting, often fatal, illness caused by genetic mutations in the structures that generate energy in all our cells.
It is also a test of the UK’s permissive, but highly regulated, stance on human embryo research that allowed a technique once criticised for creating „three-parent babies“ to proceed.
The babies, four girls and four boys – two of them identical twins – were all born in the last five years and are healthy, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
„It’s a great success for these families“, said Sir Doug Turnbull, emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle who helped pioneer the treatment.
„This is a devastating disease with no cure and without this technique, they would not feel that their families were free of mitochondrial disease. This gives them that opportunity.“
Mitochondrial disease affects around one in 5,000 babies born in the UK.
Depending on the number and type of mutations in their mitochondria, the severity and type of disease can vary, but includes neurological, metabolic and developmental disorders.
