With the help of John Zhang from the New Hope Fertility Center in New York City, a Jordanian couple conceived and gave birth to a child with more than two genetic parents. So-called “three parent babies” actually have more like 2.001 parents, according to experts. Replacing the mother’s faulty mitochondria with donor mitochondria in the newly conceived embryonic cells can produce a healthy baby while preserving the vast majority of its mother’s DNA. The parents’ genetic information is inserted into the donor’s embryo, which has had everything but the mitochondria cleared out. He also still carries a small percentage of mitochondria with his mother’s genetic mutation.

Source: National Post September 28, 2016 13:18 UTC