New York: The world's first three-parent baby has been born in Mexico with the help a controversial new fertility technique that incorporates DNA from three people, and is reported to be healthy at five months of age.
The 'three-parent' technique allows parents with rare genetic mutations to have healthy babies.
The boy's mother carries genes for Leigh syndrome, a fatal disorder that affects the brain, muscles and nerves of developing infants. Genes for the disease reside in DNA in the mitochondria, which provide energy for our cells.
The parents of the baby, a Jordanian couple, had been trying to start a family for almost 20 years.
Ten years after they married, the woman became pregnant, but it ended in the first of four miscarriages. In 2005, the couple gave birth to a baby girl. Their daughter was born with Leigh syndrome, and died aged six.
The couple's second child had the same disorder, and lived for 8 months, the 'New Scientist' reported.
The couple sought out the help of John Zhang and his team at the New Hope Fertility Centre in New York City.
Zhang used an approach called spindle nuclear transfer. He removed the nucleus from one of the mother's eggs and inserted it into a donor egg that had its own nucleus removed.
The resulting egg - with nuclear DNA from the mother and mitochondrial DNA from a donor - was then fertilised with the father's sperm.
Zhang's team used this approach to create five embryos, only one of which developed normally. This embryo was implanted in the mother and the child was born nine months later on April 6, this year.
When researchers tested the boy's mitochondria , they found that less than one per cent carry the mutation.
This may be too low to cause any problems; generally it is thought to take around 18 per cent of mitochondria to be affected before problems start, researchers said. The team will describe the findings at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's Scientific Congress in the US in October.
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Hope to return to courts by end of next month: Saina
Hyderabad, Sep 28 (PTI) Her recovery from a knee injury going ahead smoothly, India's star shuttler Saina Nehwal is hoping to return to the courts by the end of next month.
"Not before end (of) October, so I will miss tournaments till that time. I am world No.8 at present, it may go down further," Saina told PTI here.
"We have already done six weeks of rehab and still five to six more weeks are to be put before I go to courts for practice".
The 26-year-old shuttler, who won a bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics, hopes to play tournaments scheduled for November if she is match-fit by then.
"May be tournaments slated in November if everything goes well," she said, when asked which event she planned play next. Her rehab programme, following a surgery to the right knee at a Mumbai hospital last month, has been going on smoothly, she said.
"I am fine; the rehab plan is working nicely under the guidance of Heath Matthews, Head Sports Medicine, Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital Mumbai. I am highly thankful to them and Ms Chandan Poddar, physio, for the help," she said.
Saina had sustained an intra-articular injury (inside the joint) to her right knee and a small fragment of bone has separated from her patella (knee cap bone), the doctors who treated her had said.
Saina sustained the injury early August and it got aggravated during the Rio Olympics. She had lost in the Group stage after suffering a straight game defeat against Ukraine's Marija Ulitina in the second match in the world event.
Observing that badminton can improve further in the country, she said academies with good coaches can produce bright talent.
"We have to learn a lot from the present scenario and improve further. Academies manned with good coaches will help produce better talent," Saina said.
Saina also congratulated Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu, her former colleague at the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, for her grand achievement.

The world's first three-parent baby has been born in Mexico with the help a controversial newfertility technique that incorporates DNA from three people, and is reported to be healthy at five months of age

World's first three-parent baby born

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