Three Parents Contribute to Experimental Human Embryo 136
gihan_ripper writes "It sounds like the storyline from a cheesy film, but a human embryo has been created using the genetic material from one man and two women. A team from Newcastle University, England, developed the technique in the hope that it could be used to prevent diseases caused by faulty mitochondria. Their experiment started with two ingredients: first, a left over (and 'severely abnormal') embryo from an IVF treatment; second, a donor egg from another woman. The donor egg has all but the mitochondrial DNA removed, then a nucleus from the embryo is inserted into the egg. Effectively, this results in a mitochondria transplant. 'While any baby born through this method would have genetic elements from three people, the nuclear DNA that influences appearance and other characteristics would not come from the woman providing the donor egg. However, the team only have permission to carry out the lab experiments and as yet this would not be allowed to be offered as a treatment.'"
Can and Should (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
asexual reproduction - sexual reproduction ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:asexual reproduction - sexual reproduction ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this technique was for cases in which the mitochondrial DNA of the mother was already faulty. Unless combining the DNA eliminates the faultiness, I don't think it will help. Unless you meant using the dad's?
Re:Can and Should (Score:1, Interesting)