Babies born from three ‘parents’ on the horizon
FERTILITY doctors in Newcastle 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 to ensure the procedure is safe and likely to succeed.
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 defines 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.”
Britain became the first country in the world formally to allow mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) when the HFEA gave a cautious green light to the procedure last year.
In 2015, MPs and peers paved the way for the change by voting to alter the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, which sets the legal framework for fertility research and treatment.
A total of 25 patients are now lined up for the first NHS treatments in Newcastle. An initial £8m has been made available by the NHS to fund the treatments over the next five years.
Mary Herbert, Professor of Reproductive Biology at Newcastle Fertility Centre and Newcastle University, said: “It’s a great testament to the regulatory system here in the UK that research innovation can be applied in treatment to help families affected by these devastating diseases.”