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Dr David Clancy, Lecturer researching genetics and biology of ageing, Lancaster University, said:

“There was concern over mitochondrial replacement therapy. As an advance over current offerings (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and donor IVF), it allowed affected women the chance to have offspring bearing their own chromosomes. Nothing more. In that light, the chance, however small, that unfavourable genetic combinations could be created, conflicts with the aspiration that we ‘do no harm’.

“Therefore the current development of targeted mitochondrial gene therapy is a major advance. In cases where women have some genetically healthy as well as some disease-causing mitochondria, the technique should perform well. However if the woman carries little or no genetically healthy mitochondria, it cannot be used, and perhaps her choice might be for mitochondrial replacement therapy.”

‘Selective elimination of mitochondrial mutations in the germline by genome editing’ by Reddy et al. published in Cell on Thursday 23^rd April.