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Mitochondrial transfer aims to replace a faulty part of a mother's egg with healthy material from a donor.
This means a baby would have a small amount of the donor's genetic material, and therefore three biological parents.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) carried out the study.
The HFEA is the UK's independent fertility treatment regulator and its conclusions are published in a scientific review of the technique commissioned by the Department for Health.
Inherited disorders
The proposed treatment is designed to help families with rare inherited disorders.
These disorders are due to faulty energy-generating components of cells called mitochondria. Mothers carrying these faulty mitochondria in their eggs are at risk of having children with the inherited disorder.
Under the transfer treatment, the idea is to replace the faulty mitochondria in the eggs or fertilised embryos with those from eggs or early embryos from a healthy, unaffected donor.
The hope is these methods will enable couples to have healthy children and eliminate the disease for subsequent generations, but the technique is controversial because mitochondria carry their own genetic material...