UK baby born with DNA of three people in trailblazing first

In a national first, scientists combined the DNA of the child’s parents with 0.1 per cent of that of another woman.

The trailblazing move is aimed at preventing children from being born with mitochondrial diseases – a devastating set of disorders that occur when structures that produce energy for a cell malfunction.

As a result of the pioneering technique, five babies have been born across the globe.

Mitochondrial diseases are incurable, with families all over the world having reported losing multiple children to the same condition.

Death can occur after just days. 

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Mitochondria are the small vessels inside nearly every cell of the human body that transform food into usable energy.

They are passed down from a baby’s mother and mitochondrial donation treatment is essentially a modified form of IVF, which uses mitochondria from a healthy donor egg.

“News that a small number of babies with donated mitochondria have now been born in the UK is the next step in what will probably remain a slow and cautious process of assessing and refining mitochondrial donation,” Sarah Norcross, the director of the Progress Educational Trust said, according to the BBC.

Though the technique was pioneered in Newcastle, England, with laws introduced to allow the creation of such babies in the UK in 2015, the birth is the first of its kind in the country.