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On Tuesday, a couple gave birth to what researchers are calling a "three-parent baby" — giving new hope to infertile couples across the globe.
After four cycles of in vitro fertilization failed to result in a pregnancy, the Greek couple enrolled in a clinical trial for mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) — meaning doctors placed the nucleus from the mother's egg into a donor egg that had its nucleus removed. Then they fertilized the egg with sperm from the father and implanted it into the mother.
Due to this procedure, the six-pound baby boy has DNA from both his mother and father, as well as a tiny bit from the woman who donated the egg.
Greek Life
The Greek baby wasn't the first "three-parent baby" born after his parents underwent MRT — that honor goes to the offspring of a Jordanian woman who gave birth in 2016.
However, in her case and others that followed it, doctors used the technique to prevent a baby from inheriting a parent's genetic defect. This marked the first time a couple used MRT as part of a clinical trial to treat infertility.
"Our excellent collaboration and this exceptional result will help countless women to realise their dream of becoming mothers with their own genetic material," Nuno Costa-Borges, co-founder of Embryotools, one of the companies behind the trial, said in a statement.
READ MORE: Baby with DNA from three people born in Greece [The Guardian]
More on three-parent babies: An Infertile Couple Is Now Pregnant With a “Three-Parent Baby”
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