Image copyright New Hope Fertility Centre Image caption Dr John Zhang holding the baby boy who was conceived thanks to the new technique that incorporates DNA from three people

The world's first baby has been born using a new "three person" fertility technique, New Scientist reveals. The aim was to replace defective mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that may have condemned Abrahim to Leigh syndrome, a fatal disorder affecting the developing nervous system. The structure of a cell

Nucleus: Where the majority of our DNA is held - this determines how we look and our personality

Mitochondria: Often described as the cell's factories, these create the energy to make the cell function

Cytoplasm: The jelly like substance that contains the nucleus and mitochondria

Follow Michelle on Twitter Although she is healthy, two of her children have died as a result of inheriting the disease: a girl who lived until she was six and an eight-month-old baby. The technique used by Dr John Zhang, of the New Hope Fertility Clinic in New York, and his team involved taking the nucleus from one of the mother's eggs - containing her DNA - and implanting it into a donor egg that had its nucleus removed but retained the donor's healthy mitochondrial DNA. This embryo was implanted in the mother and the child was born nine months later on April 6, this year. It's not the first time scientists have created babies that have DNA from three people - that breakthrough began in the late 1990s - but it is an entirely new and significant method. The five-month-old boy has the usual DNA from his mum and dad, plus a tiny bit of genetic code from a donor. It’s vital that that happens soon.”

Professor Simon Fishel, president of the Care Fertility Group of IVF clinics, said: “This is a devastating disease that we do not wish children to be born with, and what’s more, we would wish to eradicate from any family lineage – and this technology will help achieve this. The translation of mitochondrial donation to a clinical procedure is not a race but a goal to be achieved with caution to ensure both safety and reproducibility.”



Details of the birth are due to be presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine meeting in Salt Lake City in October.
Mitochondrial donation allows the first 'three person baby' to be born.