REPRODUCTION: Babies with Three Parents

Applied Genetics News, May, 2001

The Institute for Reproductive Medicine and Science has used a technique called ooplasmic transfer to facilitate the birth of 15 babies so far. The technique involves withdrawing cytoplasm from one woman's oocyte and injecting it into another. The second oocyte is then fertilized in vitro and then transplanted into the mother.

Ooplasmic transfer is supposed to overcome deficiencies in the oocyte that prevent fertilization. The result, in some cases, is a baby that has genetic material from three parents. Mitochondrial DNA from the ooplasm donor has been detected in 2 of the 15 babies born using this technique. The oldest child is now over four months and appears to be healthy.

Jacques Cohen, scientific director of the Institute, dismisses ethical concerns. Although the babies have been modified at the germline level by the addition of new mitochondrial DNA, Cohen comments "we haven't changed any genes."