In a breakthrough that sounds like science fiction, eight babies in the UK have been born using DNA from three people.
The babies are reportedly healthy and thriving. This is an attempt to determine if a baby could be conceived by mixing the DNA of random individuals in a test tube. It’s part of an ongoing medical project aimed at eliminating mitochondrial disease in children.
Mitochondrial disease, a brutal, inherited condition passed from mothers to children, can turn life into a short, painful struggle. Think of it as a cellular power outage. It’s when mitochondria, the microscopic energy generators in our cells, fail, and the consequences range from seizures to organ failure and early death. It’s a genetic curse that’s been unstoppable. But not anymore.
There’s now a revolutionary technique that has been in development in Newcastle, England, where scientists have combined the DNA of a mother and father with healthy mitochondrial DNA from a third person.
Babies Born From Three-Parent IVF Are Healthy and Happy
The technique results in babies who are 99.9 percent their parents’ and 0.1 percent their donor’s genetic material. These genetically remixed babies could help break the cycle of mitochondrial disease.
The technique, which has been legal in the UK since 2015, involves fertilizing an egg from the mother and another from the donor with the father’s sperm. The genetic material from the parents is transplanted into the donor’s healthy embryo.
So far, 22 families have undergone the procedure. Eight babies have been born, including a pair of twins. All are free of mitochondrial disease and are developing normally. A couple of minor health issues did pop up. One had epilepsy that resolved itself, and another has a treatable heart rhythm issue, but experts don’t believe these are linked to the procedure.
While fears of “designer babies” and the slippery slopes that come with genetically tampering with unborn children persist, parents who’ve lost children or had to watch them suffer through mitochondrial disease can feel a little bit more hopeful.
The science still needs some work. There are some residual effects of mitochondria detected in some of the kids. But overall, it seems like a promising solution for parents to have a family history of mitochondrial disease and don’t want to pass it down to their children.
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