Cosmos
Curated content from the editorial staff at Cosmos Magazine.
The first baby conceived using DNA from three people to stop mitochondrial disease has been born in Mexico, according to research to be presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, next month.
The five-month-old boy was conceived using a technique known as spindle nuclear transfer, where the nucleus of the mother’s egg is transplanted into a donor egg with healthy mitochondria which has had its own nucleus removed.
Because mitochondria have their own small amount of DNA, once the egg is fertilised via IVF, the embryo contains the genetic material from three different people.
The technique was used in order to try and stop the baby developing the mitochondrial disease known as Leigh Syndrome.
