MitochondrialDnaDefects
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UK doctors plan country's first three-person fertilization procedure
UK officials have approved two women for mitochondrial replacement therapy, the fertilization procedure that results in a baby technically parented by three people, the Guardian reports. The procedure, which still isn't approved in the US, was legalized in the UK in 2015 and the Newcastle Fertility Centre, where the two women will be treated, was granted a license to perform the procedure last March. While it's not the first time a procedure like this has been done, it is the first time it will happen in the UK.
'Three-parent baby' test success could mean human trials in two years
The theoretical and controversial method to make a baby from three parents, using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to insert certain genes from a third person into a growing embryo, has been a long time coming. But after years of restricted research and testing on donor eggs, scientists at Newcastle University have successfully tested their mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) method in healthy human embryos for the first time. Should it be deemed safe enough, human trials could start in one or two years.
