‘Three-parent’ baby just short step away

FERTILITY doctors in Britain are a short step away from creating a “three-parent” baby to prevent inherited disease.

Regulators said the Newcastle Fertility Centre at Life had crossed the first hurdle in the two-stage process of obtaining a licence to carry out the IVF treatment.

Approval of the clinic’s facilities, equipment and staff was announced by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which polices fertility treatment and research.

A separate appraisal of the suitability of the first patient selected to undergo the therapy will now be made by the HFEA.

This will take account of medical history and personal biology to ensure that the procedure is safe and likely to meet with success.

Once the patient has been cleared, a licence to carry out the treatment will be granted, probably before the end of the year.

The aim of the treatment is to prevent women passing on defective genes in the mitochondria — tiny rod-like power plants in cells which supply energy. But the technique, which involves giving a woman an IVF baby with DNA from three individuals, is highly controversial.

The baby will have nuclear DNA from its mother and father which define key characteristics, such as personality and eye colour.

In addition, it will have a tiny amount of mitochondrial DNA provided by a female donor — the third “parent”.

HFEA chairwoman Sally Cheshire, who announced the news at the regulator’s annual meeting in London, said: “This significant decision represents the culmination of many years’ hard work by researchers, clinical experts and regulators, who collectively paved the way for Parliament to change the law in 2015 to permit the use of such techniques.

“Patients will now be able to apply individually to the HFEA to undergo mitochondrial donation treatment at Newcastle, which will be life-changing for them, as they seek to avoid passing on serious genetic diseases to future generations.”

Mitochondria only hold about 0.1% of a person’s DNA, which is always inherited from the mother. But when mtDNA goes wrong, the results can be catastrophic, leading to a wide range of potentially fatal conditions affecting vital organs, muscles, vision, growth and mental ability.

The new treatments could potentially eliminate the diseases for ever.

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Newcastle Fertility Centre