Scientists create embryos from three parents

Human embryos containing DNA from a man and two women have been created which scientists say could provide treatment for incurable genetic diseases.

However, pro-life supporters were dismayed by the prospect of genetically-altered babies being born in Britain, and said the researchers should not meddle in the “building blocks of life”.

The team at Newcastle University, one of the country’s leading research centres, used 10 embryos which were not suitable for IVF treatment, and replaced faulty mitochondria cells from the mother with undamaged cells from a female donor.

The embryos were allowed to develop for five days, and one of them was closely analysed and the transplant was deemed to be a success.

Similar tests in mice have also worked in laboratory conditions.

Mitochondria play a vital role in the body’s energy supply, but if they are damaged they can cause a series of serious neuro-muscular diseases, liver failure, deafness, strokes or blindness.

Professor Patrick Chinnery, a neurogenetic expert at Newcastle University, said: “The research aims to tackle and prevent a group of relatively uncommon but really severe diseases which affect the nervous system and muscles.

“Ultimately in many of cases, they are fatal and there is no treatment. The aim is to develop ways of preventing them from being passed on from the mother to her offspring.”

Prof Chinnery said if there was a “spelling mistake” in the mitochondria’s DNA code, it was passed from the mother to her child, but “good” mitochondria could in the future be transplanted from a donor.

This would be done within days of a routine fertilisation using IVF, he said.

While Prof Chinnery was unable to give a precise timescale, he believed the treatment could be offered to families within five to 10 years.

The scientists insist the baby would only inherit the mother and father’s characteristics, as the transplanted mitochondria from the donor would not have any effect on the child’s personality or appearance.

It has been likened to the process of swapping a computer’s battery supply without affecting its hard-drive.

But Josephine Quintavelle of the pro-life group Comment on Reproductive Ethics said: “This is a very risky and dangerous way forward.

“We should not be messing around with the building blocks of life.”

She said embryo research in the US using DNA from one man and two women was discontinued because of the “huge abnormalities” in some cases.

“To experiment on a human child in this way is absolutely unforgivable,” she said.

“There is very broad party opposition to these new ideas, but the UK seems so excited about them.”

Prof Chinnery said swapping mitochondria could be seen as routine in the future as we now consider bone marrow transplants for children with leukaemia.

He added: “You cannot separate from the ethical debate the severity of the devastating nature of these diseases for which there is no treatment.”