UK regulator permits application of treatment involving "three-parent babies"

Britain's clinics have been given the green light to apply for licenses to use an advanced form of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, which will lead to the creation of babies from three people.

This means that specialist IVF clinics in Britain wanting to offer such treatments to patients may now apply to the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) for permission to do so.

Each applicant will have to undergo a series of evaluations and examinations by different HFEA committees before being granted a license to perform the procedure.

The decision comes two weeks after an independent expert scientific panel convened by the HFEA published its fourth review into the safety and efficacy of the treatment.

The treatment is aimed at preventing newborn babies from developing mitochondrial disease, which is caused by defective mitochondria. Such defect is passed down to the child only from the mother.

In almost every cell, there is some tiny structures called mitochondria, and it plays an important role in the cell's energy supply.

Children who are born with mitochondrial disease tend to have symptoms such as seizures, muscle weakness, diabetes, heart and liver failure, etc. These children usually have very low survival rate.

The treatment will see doctors replace the mother's defective mitochondria with healthy ones from a female donor.

The procedure will lead to a baby with DNA from three people -- the mother, the father and the donor -- hence the name "three-parent babies".

"After a lot of hard work and invaluable advice from the expert panel, who reviewed the development, safety and efficacy of these techniques over five years and four reports, we feel now is the right time to carefully introduce this new treatment in the limited circumstances recommended by the panel," said Sally Cheshire, HFEA Chair.

Britain's parliament passed regulations permitting the use of such treatment in February 2015, and the regulatory framework has been in place since October 2015.

However, clinics had been advised to wait until after the HFEA had considered the panel's recommendations before applying for permission to offer mitochondrial disease to patients.

A team at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University is considered at the forefront of the race to get the first such license from HFEA.

Britain's first baby with three people's DNA could be conceived sometime next year. Endit