Mitocondria transplant
John Zhang of the New Hope Fertility Center in Manhattan traveled to Mexico earlier this year to perform a procedure for a couple from Jordan that enabled them to have the baby in May, according to a clinic spokesman.
The technique Zhang used involved removing all the DNA from the nucleus of eggs donated by women with healthy mitochondrial DNA. The DNA in the nucleus of eggs carries most of the genetic information needed to create a person, including the information most people consider important, such as determining an individual's physical appearance.
Zhang then removed all the nuclear DNA from the eggs of the woman trying to have a healthy baby and placed that DNA into the donor egg, leaving the defective mitochondrial DNA behind. Those eggs, which then presumably had only healthy DNA, were then fertilized with sperm from the husband of the woman trying to have a baby.
Zhang created five embryos this way. Only one developed normally, according to his report. It was transferred into the woman's womb and resulted in the birth of a boy, who appears healthy, according to the clinic.
Because mitochondrial DNA is only passed from women to their female offspring, the boy is incapable of transferring the transplanted DNA to any future children, sidestepping many of the ethical concerns.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...r-says-he-created-baby-with-3-genetic-parents
John Zhang of the New Hope Fertility Center in Manhattan traveled to Mexico earlier this year to perform a procedure for a couple from Jordan that enabled them to have the baby in May, according to a clinic spokesman.
The technique Zhang used involved removing all the DNA from the nucleus of eggs donated by women with healthy mitochondrial DNA. The DNA in the nucleus of eggs carries most of the genetic information needed to create a person, including the information most people consider important, such as determining an individual's physical appearance.
Zhang then removed all the nuclear DNA from the eggs of the woman trying to have a healthy baby and placed that DNA into the donor egg, leaving the defective mitochondrial DNA behind. Those eggs, which then presumably had only healthy DNA, were then fertilized with sperm from the husband of the woman trying to have a baby.
Zhang created five embryos this way. Only one developed normally, according to his report. It was transferred into the woman's womb and resulted in the birth of a boy, who appears healthy, according to the clinic.
Because mitochondrial DNA is only passed from women to their female offspring, the boy is incapable of transferring the transplanted DNA to any future children, sidestepping many of the ethical concerns.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...r-says-he-created-baby-with-3-genetic-parents
