SCIENTISTS SEEK TO CREATE EMBRYOS WITH THREE PARENTS: From the Telegraph (UK)

British scientists have applied for a licence to create human embryos with three genetic parents in an experiment that could lead to new cures for hereditary diseases.

A team at Newcastle University says the research could lead to techniques that would stop mothers passing on genetic defects to their children.

However, campaigners believe the experiments would mark a disturbing step towards the creation of genetically engineered babies.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is expected to rule on whether to allow the experiments in the next few weeks.

The technology is intended to help women with diseases of the mitochondria--the "power packs" that swim around inside cells converting food into energy. Each mitochondrion has its own DNA which gives it instructions on how to behave and which is passed down from mothers to children. ...

Faults in the mitochondrial DNA can cause around 50 known diseases, some which lead to disability and death. Around 1,000 children in Britain are thought to suffer from such diseases.

The Newcastle team, led by Prof Doug Turnbull and Dr Mary Herbert, believe it could be possible to eradicate these diseases by giving newly conceived embryos a "mitochondria transplant".

Couples would use IVF treatment to create a fertilised egg. Within hours of fertilisation, the nucleus--containing the DNA from the mother and father--would be removed from its original egg and implanted into a donor egg, whose own nuclear DNA had been removed. ...

In the Newcastle research, scientists will experiment on fertilised eggs from IVF treatment that would otherwise be thrown away. Under the law, they would not be allowed to transfer the three-parent embryos to a woman.

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