Health aNd Fitness Guide

Scientists have created human embryos from three parents, which could be the answer to a group of hereditary diseases called mitochondrial disease. Researchers from Newcastle University in Northern Ireland created test tube embryos in the lab using the DNA of a man and two women. Mitochondrial diseases — including liver, brain and heart disorders, blindness, deafness, some forms of epilepsy, and muscular problems — are inherited from the mother. The aim of the method is to make sure that women with faulty mitochondrial DNA do not pass the diseases on to their children. This is achieved by giving the embryos at risk a mitochondrial transplant. However, it may take time to sort out the ethical aspects of these studies.