17 Jul
2025
32.3° c YEREVAN
26.3° c STEPANAKERT
ABCMEDIA
8 healthy babies born in UK from DNA of 3 people

8 healthy babies born in UK from DNA of 3 people

Eight babies have been born in the UK using genetic material from three people to prevent devastating and often fatal conditions, the BBC writes.

The method, pioneered by UK scientists, combines the egg and sperm from a mum and dad with a second egg from a donor woman.

As scientists say, the technique has been legal in the country for a decade but we now have the first proof it is leading to children born free of incurable mitochondrial disease.

The Guardian writes that the mothers were all at high risk for passing on life-threatening diseases to their babies due to mutations in their mitochondria, the tiny structures that sit inside cells and provide the power they need to function.

Children born through the three-person technique inherit most of their DNA, their genetic blueprint, from their parents, but also get a tiny amount, about 0.1%, from the second woman.

The four boys and four girls, including one set of identical twins, were born to seven women and have no signs of the mitochondrial diseases they were at risk of inheriting. One further pregnancy is ongoing.

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