Have you heard of a three-parent baby?
Q. Where was world’s first three-parent baby born in the world?- Published on 29 Sep 16a. China
b. Mexico
c. Spain
d. Italy
ANSWER: Mexico
The world’s first three-parent baby was born in Mexico with the aid of a new fertility technique that uses DNA from three people.
- The baby is said to be healthy at 5 months of age
- The technique allows parents with rare genetic mutations to have healthy children
- Boy’s mother carries genes for Leigh syndrome, a fatal brain disorder
- The Jordanian couple had a daughter but she was born with Leigh Syndrome as was their second child
- The couple then sought out treatment at New Hope Fertility Centre in NYC
- Researcher John Zhang and his team used spindle nuclear transfer- removing the nucleus from one of the mother’s egg and inserting it into a donor egg which has its own nucleus removed
- Resulting egg- with nuclear DNA from mother and mitochondrial DNA from donor- was fertilised with the sperm of the father
- 5 embryos were created one of which developed normally and the baby was born in April 2016
- When researchers tested the boy’s mitochondria, they found that less than one percent carry the mutation; problems only start when 18 percent of the mitochondria is affected
