Three Parent Babies

Three Parent Baby is a baby who has most of his / her DNA from mother and father but also has a small amount of DNA  from a third donor. The DNA from the third donor is inserted in baby’s cells via Mitochondrial Gene Therapy (MGT) procedure.

About Mitochondrial disorders

Mitochondria are found in every cell of the human body except red blood cells. They convert the energy of food molecules into the ATP that powers most cell functions. A group of Mitochondrial diseases renders them dysfunctional and if any of these diseases is passed on from parents to baby, it is incurable. The genetic disease happens when mitochondria in mother’s cells have a mutation called “Leigh Syndrome“. In Leigh Syndrome, most of the mitochondria of mother function normally and she does not have the disease but she may pass the disease to her children via her eggs.

How it works?

The Mitochondrial Gene Therapy involves transplantation of healthy DNA in human eggs from a women with mitochondrial disease into the eggs of women donors who don’t have the disease. There are two methods of MGT. First involving the early stage embryo and second manipulating the egg before it is fertilized. In the first, the genetic material from the mother is removed from the embryo and placed into another early stage embryo with healthy mitochondria from a donor. The second does the same, but before fertilization, so the mother’s genetic material is removed from the egg with faulty mitochondria and placed into an unaffected donor egg. Thus, technically, the resulting child would have genetic material from three people.