UK doctors announced eight babies have been born following a procedure that uses three people’s DNA to stop children inheriting genetic disorders.
The groundbreaking method, pioneered by UK scientists, is used within IVF and combines the egg and sperm cell from mum and dad with a second egg that has been donated.
Originally the UK changed the law to legalise the method in 2015 and the fertility regulator granted the first license in 2017 to a clinic at Newcastle University. Despite being around for over a decade, we now have living proof that babies can be born free of mitochondrial disease.
The disease is a group of genetic conditions that starve the body of energy. It can cause severe disabilities and in some severe cases, babies that are born with it can die within days. The condition is often inherited – passed from mother to baby.
However, the eight new babies that have recently been born – four boys and four girls, including one set of identical twins – have showed no signs of having the condition despite being at risk of inheriting it.
The infants’ journeys have been detailed in two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine. When they first arrived all eight were described as healthy. One child developed a urine infection that was treated and another developed muscle jerks which went away on their own.
Similarly, another child was discovered to have high blood fat and an irregular heartbeat, but this was treated. The condition was thought to be related to a medical issue their mother had during pregnancy.
Bobby McFarland, director of the NHS Highly Specialised Service for Rare Mitochondrial Disorders at Newcastle hospitals NHS foundation trust, said: ‘All the children are well and they’re continuing to meet their developmental milestones.’
Five of the babies are now just under a year old, two are aged between one and two and the other child is significantly older – they were born in 2023 making them the first child in the UK to have been created from the IVF procedure.
A mother of one of the girls said: ‘As parents, all we ever wanted was to give our child a healthy start in life. After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope – and then it gave us our baby.
‘We look at them now, full of life and possibility, and we’re overwhelmed with gratitude.
‘Thanks to this incredible advancement and the support we received, our little family is complete. The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy and deep gratitude.’
Photo by Zach Lucero via Unsplash
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