Human embryo production from genes of 3 people

Scientists in Oregon have created embryos with genes taken from a man and two women, using a technique that could one day be used to get babies out of the danger. transmission of some rare and serious diseases.

Researchers at the Oregon Health & Sciences University (Oregon Health & Sciences University) say they do not use embryos to 'produce' children, and it is unclear when the technique will be put to use. But it stirred up a debate about risk and morality in the UK, where scientists have done similar work a few years ago.

The British experiments were reported in 2008, led by the title of articles about the possibility that babies will one day have a tube of father and two mothers. But that is an overstatement. DNA taken from the second woman only accounts for less than 1% of the embryonic genes, so it cannot be said that the woman is also the mother of the child. It's just a replacement of some faulty genes that damage the normal functioning of the cells.

The British government solicited public opinion on the technology before deciding whether to allow the use of the technology in the future. However, switching a gene segment can also open up the possibility of babies being 'designed' , such as ' a petite girl ' or ' a tall girl or boy, dark haired, blue eyes' .

It is also questioned about the safety of this technique, not only with the child being 'produced' from the technology, but also for the next generation of the child.

In June, an influential group in British bioethics concluded that this technology could be ethical and used if proven to be safe and effective. In 2011, experts do not have the above-mentioned technology evidence but it is not safe to recommend.

Laurie Zoloth, a bioethicist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said in an interview that safety issues may not show up for generations. She said she hopes the United States will follow the British lead to have a wide-ranging discussion on the technology.

'While diseases that this technology seeks to prevent can be very terrible, this technology is not the best way to deal with it , ' Zoloth said.

In the past few years, scientists have reported results of this technology experiment, they have 'produced' healthy monkeys and tests in human eggs have also shown encouraging results. Oregon scientists said they produced about a dozen human embryos and found the technique to be highly effective in replacing DNA.

The genes that these scientists want to replace are not genes that regulate traits like eye color and height that people still think. In fact, the genes that scientists want to replace are genes that reside outside the nucleus, in the energy production structure called the "mitochondria". These genes are passed down through the mother without going through the father.

About one-fifth of children are born with a genetic disease caused by a mitochondrial genetic defect. Defects can cause many rare diseases with a range of symptoms, including stroke, seizures, dementia, blindness, deafness, kidney failure and heart disease.

If this new technique is approved for use one day, a woman will be able to give birth to a baby with her DNA sequence but not with mitochondrial DNA that has her defective gene.

This technique is done as follows: Doctors will use the patient's unfertilized eggs and eggs from other healthy women. They will remove DNA from healthy female eggs and replace them with DNA in the patient's egg nucleus. As a result, they created an egg with the human DNA and the healthy mitochondrial DNA.