11-Apr-2019: First 3-parent baby born in clinical trial to treat infertility
A Greek woman has given birth to a baby boy using a controversial technique that combines DNA from three people, in the first clinical trial of its kind to treat infertility. The boy was born on 9 April, to a 32-year-old woman with a history of multiple IVF failures and poor egg quality.

Several researchers have expressed concern over the use of the technique for infertility, as this is not what it is originally developed for. Instead it was meant as a way for mothers to avoid passing on mitochondrial disease to their children.

The technique is called spindle nuclear transfer, in which the nucleus from the mother is transferred into a donor egg that has had its nucleus removed. The donor egg is then fertilised with sperm from the father and returned to the mother. The resulting child would possess genetic material from the mother and the father and a small number of genes from the donor.

The first child created using this technique was born in 2016 in Mexico, a little boy, whose mother carried genes for Leigh syndrome, a fatal neurological disorder linked to genes in mitochondria.

The risks of spindle nuclear transfer are not entirely known. Animal experiments have suggested that a mismatch between mitochondrial DNA from the donor and DNA from the mother and father may cause accelerated ageing and affect metabolism and obesity.

The risks may be considered acceptable if being used to treat mitochondrial disease, but not in this situation, as the patient may have conceived with another round of IVF.

In most cases of infertility, the cause is unknown. Some researchers believe that mitochondria may be involved but this has not been tested.

It is not the first time that a 3-parent approach has been used to overcome fertility problems. A similar technique, called pro-nuclear transfer, has been used in Kiev, Ukraine to treat several women with poor quality eggs. This procedure involves fertilising both the mother and the donor’s eggs with the father’s sperm, before discarding the donor’s fertilised nucleus and replacing it with the mother’s. The UK has approved the use of both techniques to treat mitochondrial disease, but no births have yet been announced.

1-Feb-2018: UK doctors select first women to have ‘three-person babies’

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 fertilized eggs created through standard IVF with DNA from female donors. The Newcastle centre was granted a licence to perform the treatment, also known as mitochondrial replacement therapy, in March last year.

The two women carry mutations in a gene that causes a rare condition known as myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibres, or Merrf syndrome. Merrf syndrome can be a devastating neurodegenerative disorder that worsens over time and often results in an early death. The condition, which affects one in 100,000 people, is typically diagnosed in early childhood or adolescence when people develop sudden spasms which progress to a loss of muscle control, weakness, deafness and dementia.

Having reviewed the women’s medical and family histories, the HFEA committee agreed that any children they conceived may be affected by “serious multi-systemic and progressive disease” which would severely affect their quality of life. Neither woman was deemed suitable for an IVF procedure called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which can pick up harmful mutations in IVF embryos, but can only help if at least some of the embryos are healthy.

While men and women both have mitochondria, they are passed solely from mother to child. Mutations in mitochondrial DNA cause thousands of genetic diseases that tend to hit the energy-hungry brain, heart and muscles, and worsen with age.

Mitochondrial donation therapy was pioneered at Newcastle by the neurologist Doug Turnbull to prevent women passing on harmful mitochondrial DNA mutations to their children. To perform the procedure, doctors create a fertilized egg using IVF as normal. But rather than letting it develop into an embryo, the parents’ chromosomes are removed and placed inside a donor egg that has had its own genetic material removed. The embryo so created has all of the parents’ chromosomes, but the mother’s damaged mitochondria are replaced with the donor’s healthy ones.

The two women in Newcastle will not be the first in the world to have the therapy. In 2016, John Zhang, a doctor at the New Hope Fertility Center in New York, announced the birth of an apparently healthy child created in a similar way at a clinic in Mexico. While news of the birth was welcomed by many scientists, some voiced concerns that the child might not have the regular follow-up checks that are needed to ensure it is developing properly.

16-mar-2017: U.K. grants first license to make babies using 3-person DNA

Britain’s Newcastle University says its scientists have received a license to create babies using DNA from three people, the first time such approval has been granted.

In December, British officials approved the “cautious use” of the techniques, which are intended to prevent women from passing on fatal genetic diseases to their children. The new procedures fix problems linked to mitochondria, the energy-producing structures outside a cell’s nucleus. Faulty mitochondria can result in conditions including muscular dystrophy and major organ failure.

Last year, U.S.-based doctors announced they had created the world’s first baby using such techniques, after traveling to Mexico to perform the methods, which have not been approved in the United States. In that case, the mother had suffered four miscarriages and had two children who died from a rare and generally fatal neurological disorder called Leigh syndrome, one at age 6 and one at 8 months.

The procedure used in that case, called spindle nuclear transfer, involves removing the healthy nucleus from one of the mother’s eggs and transferring it to a donor egg which had had its nucleus removed. The resulting egg – with nuclear DNA from the mother and mitochondrial DNA from a donor – was then fertilized with the father’s sperm.

The resulting embryo contained genetic material from three parents – the mother, the egg donor, and the father.

In Britain, leaders disagreed heatedly on the issue while it was up for debate in the House of Commons, with some raising concerns about “designer babies” and “playing God.” Leading churches in Britain – both Protestant and Catholic – opposed the procedure on religious and ethical grounds, they said.