8 babies born using 3-parent IVF method to prevent fatal genetic disease
The method, referred to by the BBC as the three-person technique, was pioneered by a group of Newcastle-based British scientists and combines the egg and sperm of a mother and father with the healthy DNA of a second egg, donated by a woman to eliminate the risk of a baby developing mitochondrial disorders.
The technique has been legal in the U.K. for 10 years, but proof that it is effective and leading to children being born without the disease is just beginning to emerge.
Mitochondrial disorders are only passed down from the mother to the baby, and deplete the body of the energy it needs to sustain life. It can also cause severe disabilities, with some babies dying within days of birth.
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The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke says that such disorders can affect one or many parts of the body, including the brain, muscles, kidneys, heart, eyes and ears.
While children born through the three-person technique inherit the majority of their DNA from their parents, about 0.1 per cent is passed on through the donor egg, and then through future generations.
About one in 5,000 babies are born with mitochondrial disease, but this new technique means couples who may have lost one or multiple children to the fatal disorder before can try again while eliminating the risk of passing on the disease.
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Embryo selection for IVF, light micrograph.
While the eight couples who used the method to have children have chosen to remain anonymous, they have shared statements detailing their experiences through the Newcastle Fertility Centre, where the procedures took place.
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'After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope — and then it gave us our baby,' the mother of a baby girl said, as reported by the BBC.
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'We look at them now, full of life and possibility, and we're overwhelmed with gratitude,' she continued.
Another mother of a baby boy said, 'Thanks to this incredible advancement and the support we received, our little family is complete.'
'The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy and deep gratitude,' she added.
How the procedure works
The science was created over a decade ago at Newcastle University and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in northern England, with a specialist NHS service opening in 2017.
The eggs from the mother and the donor woman are fertilized in a lab using the dad's sperm.
Two embryos develop until the DNA from the sperm and egg can be extracted from a structure known as the pronuclei, which determines features such as hair colour and height.
The pronuclei are then removed from both embryos, and the parents' DNA is put inside the donor embryo with healthy mitochondria.
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Two reports in the New England Journal of Medicine recorded 22 families who have undergone the process at Newcastle Fertility Centre, leading to the birth of four boys, four girls, a set of twins and an existing pregnancy.
'To see the relief and joy in the faces of the parents of these babies after such a long wait and fear of consequences, it's brilliant to be able to see these babies alive, thriving and developing normally,' Prof. Bobby McFarland, the director of the NHS Highly Specialised Service for Rare Mitochondrial Disorders, told the BBC.
All the babies born so far were born without mitochondrial disease and have met their developmental milestones.
One child was born with epilepsy, which reportedly went away on its own, and another had an abnormal heart rhythm, which is being effectively treated. Neither is thought to be connected to defective mitochondria, though it is not known if they are related to the risks of IVF, the three-person method, or something that has been detected due to intense medical observation.
There is also still doubt over whether defective mitochondria could be transferred to the healthy embryo and the potential consequences.
In five cases, the diseased mitochondria were undetectable. In the other three, between 5 per cent and 20 per cent of mitochondria were defective in blood and urine samples.
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Nonetheless, the rate of detection is below the 80 per cent level thought to cause the disease. Still, further research is needed to understand why the defective transfer occurred and if it can be prevented.
Prof. Mary Herbert, from Newcastle University and Monash University, told the BBC: 'The findings give grounds for optimism. However, research to better understand the limitations of mitochondrial donation technologies will be essential to further improve treatment outcomes.'
The U.K., as well as developing the science, was the first country in the world the legalize the procedure, which happened in 2015.
The procedure is illegal in Canada and most other countries, but is also available in Australia and Ukraine. Global News reached out to Health Canada for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
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CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Canadian researchers solve 12-year mystery of sea star wasting disease
Sunflower sea stars (pycnopodia helianthoides) and sea vases (ciona intestinalis) are seen in the waters in Rivers Inlet, B.C., in an undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Hakai Institute, Bennett Whitnell (Mandatory Credit) A team led by researchers in British Columbia has solved the mystery of a gruesome disease that has killed billions of sea stars along the Pacific coast of North America, more than a decade after the die off. Melanie Prentice, the lead author of a new study, recalls a moment of 'not really believing it' when researchers found a strain of bacteria that was abundant in diseased sea stars and absent in healthy ones. 'My initial reaction was like, 'Okay, so I've done something wrong,'' she said. Prentice said the team spent months trying to disprove their findings, ultimately confirming they had cracked the code of the disease. They found the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida is a clear cause of sea star wasting disease. '(It's) a question that researchers have been trying to answer for about 12 years, so we're beyond thrilled,' said Prentice, a research associate at the Hakai Institute and the University of B.C. department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences. The paper detailing the four-year research project and its findings were published online in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on Monday. Alyssa Gehman, who helped launch the project in 2021, described the disease as 'gruesome,' causing sea stars to develop lesions, lose their arms and 'disappear into mush' about a week or two after exposure to the pathogen. It has been especially deadly for sunflower sea stars, killing about six billion of the species that can sprout 24 arms and span up to a metre. The giant sea stars are now considered functionally extinct across much of their former range off the coast of the continental United States, with losses exceeding 87 per cent in the 'northern refuges' where they still persist, the study said. The collapse has had cascading impacts, including widespread losses of ecologically, culturally and economically important kelp forests. 'I think we didn't really appreciate how important they were until we lost them,' Prentice said, describing the orange, purple or brown sunflower stars as a 'keystone' species with an outsized impact on their ecosystem. The giant sea stars are top predators, striking fear into other invertebrates. 'Almost everything that lives on the ground underwater runs away from them when they're coming,' said Gehman, a marine disease ecologist at the Hakai Institute and an adjunct professor at the University of B.C.'s Institute of Oceans and Fisheries. They keep sea urchin populations in check, in turn ensuring the health of help forests that provide habitat and food for numerous other species. The devastation of the sunflower sea stars has caused a 'total ecosystem shift,' Prentice said, transforming biodiverse kelp forests into 'urchin barrens.' The bacterium that causes sea star wasting disease had remained elusive for more than a decade since sea stars were first observed dying in large numbers in 2013. The same bacterium has been known to attack scallop larvae. Prentice said the breakthrough came after the research team switched from examining diseased tissues to focusing on the sea stars' coelomic fluid, likening it to the blood of the sea star. Earlier research had involved running the tissues through tiny membrane filters that would have excluded bacteria, which are typically larger than viruses, she explained. The Hakai Institute team started by replicating the initial experiments, but they weren't able to cause disease in healthy sea stars, she said. 'We were doing everything we could and we were just never ever able to cause disease, and so to us that suggested that the pathogen is larger than a virus.' However, after pivoting to coelomic fluid, which Prentice described as 'essentially sea water,' the researchers did trigger disease in healthy sea stars. 'That suggested that the pathogen was in that fluid, and so then we just end up working with a much cleaner, easier tissue type to investigate,' she said. From there, Prentice created a list of all the different microbial species found in wasting sea stars and compare it against the healthy stars in the lab. 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Prentice said there are 'remnant' populations of sunflower stars along the B.C. coast, and its 'very possible' some could be more resistant to the wasting disease. She said finding and selectively breeding sea stars with a higher capacity to fight off the disease could produce 'superstar' sea stars for reintroduction in the wild. 'It seems like science fiction sometimes, but people are working on it,' she said. This report by Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press, was first published Aug. 4, 2025.
Globe and Mail
3 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Breakthrough in mysterious sea star wasting disease offers hope for recovery of critically endangered creatures
Sunflower sea stars were once everywhere along the Pacific coast. Big, colourful and many-armed, they could be spotted at low tide clinging to rocks as if painted there by Vincent Van Gogh. Then came a devastating sickness that turned healthy sea stars into mounds of decaying mush. Known as sea star wasting disease, the mysterious syndrome is estimated to have killed billions of individuals since it emerged in 2013. More than 20 species have been affected, with sunflower sea stars among the hardest hit. Their numbers have plummeted by 90 per cent and the species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Now the cause of the contagion has been found: It is a bacterium – a member of the vibrio family – whose relatives include pathogens associated with seafood-borne illnesses and with cholera. 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Dr. Gehman said that when she first undertook the project in 2020 with funding from The Nature Conservancy of California among other sources, she felt the complexity of the disease would likely preclude finding a definitive cause. But she thought she could help to move the field forward. 'We didn't expect to get to the place we did,' she said. Much of the work was conducted at the United States Geological Survey Marrowstone Field Station, located near the entrance to Puget Sound. The station includes facilities where sea stars can be kept in quarantine without risk of contamination or of infection being released back into the ecosystem. It began by setting up a baseline group of specimens that were isolated long enough to be reliably disease free. These were subjected to a series of 'challenge experiments' to determine under what circumstance disease would spread. 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'It's about a four-hour drive plus ferry from the University of British Columbia where we were, so we just hopped in a car and drove straight there,' Dr. Gehman said. 'We arrived at 9 p.m. and sampled the stars in the dark with headlamps.' Using the sample material, the group conducted a battery of controlled tests which confirmed their initial suspicions. The results consistently pointed to Vibrio pectenicida as the single definitive cause. The bacteria is now cultured and available for further research. That includes studies across different species to look for differences in response to the disease and the potential for finding individuals with some innate resistance. Scientists also hope to trace the recent evolution of the bacteria by looking at preserved tissue samples. All of this can inform recovery strategies for bringing back the threatened sea stars. 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The Market Online
9 hours ago
- The Market Online
Three micro-cap stocks tracking cutting-edge technology
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Join the discussion: Find out what investors are saying about these cutting-edge technology stocks on the Cheelcare Inc., Corp. and Fineqia International Inc. Bullboards and check out the rest of Stockhouse's stock forums and message boards. Stockhouse does not provide investment advice or recommendations. All investment decisions should be made based on your own research and consultation with a registered investment professional. The issuer is solely responsible for the accuracy of the information contained herein. For full disclaimer information, please click here.
