The World’s First Three-Parent Baby Born In Mexico

A baby born born in Mexico is the world’s first three-parent baby, after going through a controversial ‘egg-editing’ procedure to avoid inheriting a disease from his mother.

The procedure is illegal in many places, meaning the baby’s parents – originally from Jordan – had to travel to Mexico in order to be treated by a US medical team. This meant they were not limited by laws and were able to undertake the controversial procedure.

The boy is unique in the world as he not only carries DNA from both his biological parents, but also from a third donor parent. This donor supplied the genetic information he boy needed in order to avoid a disease that his mother carried and passed down through her mitochondria. Thanks to the ‘three-parent’ procedure, the baby has no sign of the genetic disease.

Neither the baby nor the parents have been named, but Dr John Zhang, who led the medical team from New York City’s New Hope Fertility Centre, did speak to Daily Mail Online about the ground-breaking success.

“It proves for the first time that genetic information from three people can avoid disease,” he said.

“We now know reconstitution of human eggs can produce a healthy baby.No other technique has been established.”

While he did not identify the family involved in the procedure, Dr Zhang did share why the had decided to undertake the treatment. The mother of the boy is a Leigh’s Syndrome carrier. The couple had two children in the past inherit the devastating syndrome and die from it, one aged six and one aged just 8 months. Leigh’s syndrome is a severe neurological disorder that attacks the nervous system, inhibiting a child’s mental and physical abilities from birth.

Upon undertaking tests, the parents found that it was the mother passing the genes for the syndrome down, it being present in one in four of the mother’s mitochondria. So they traveled to America to get help from Dr Zhang, and the centre which is known for its new innovations.

The boy owes his life to a technique called a spindle nuclear transfer. This involves removing the nucleus from one of his mother’s eggs and inserting it into a donor egg that has had the nucleus removed. This egg was then fertilised and implanted, resulting in the successful birth of the boy.

Just The Beginning

Dr Zhang was quick to note that “this is just the start”, claiming that the procedure could be used for many things beyond avoiding hereditary diseases, although that is the focus at the moment.

However, in the future, potential applications of the procedure were unlimited and could go as far as altering the DNA of an unborn child to effect how they look or their skills.

“It’s all possible. It just depends how you use the technique.” said Dr Zhang. “This technique is a new platform. How far it can go, I really cannot imagine. But it’s totally possible to accomplish [cosmetic editing].”

Of course, that could be many years in the future, and the process needs much more rigorous research and testing before being accepted world-wide.

Source – Daily Mail