UK May Be Close To Approving Nuclear Transfer Technique for IVF
By John Farrell,
Forbes
| 03. 28. 2013
[Quotes CGS's Marcy Darnovsky]
The conception of children who share the genes of three parents could be one step closer to reality.
Last week the the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the United Kingdom recommended that the British government legalize nuclear transfer techniques for parents to conceive children by in-vitro fertilization using donor eggs in order to avoid passing on the mother’s own mitochondrial DNA
Many severe disorders are passed from mother to offspring through the mitochondrial DNA.* Mutations in the genes of the mitochondria have also been found in connection with many kinds of cancers. Nuclear transfer would offer prospective parents a way around the dilemma.
The procedure would involve methods similar to the one I wrote about late last year being tested by Dieter Egli at the New York Stem Cell Foundation.
According to Jessica Griggs writing in this week’s New Scientist, there are two different methods being considered by the HFEA in the UK.
One is being pioneered by Shoukhrat Mitalipov at the Oregon National Primate
Research Center in Beaverton. His method involves inserting the nucleus
from an egg...
Related Articles
By Katherine Long, Ben Foldy, and Lingling Wei, The Wall Street Journal | 12.13.2025
Inside a closed Los Angeles courtroom, something wasn’t right.
Clerks working for family court Judge Amy Pellman were reviewing routine surrogacy petitions when they spotted an unusual pattern: the same name, again and again.
A Chinese billionaire was seeking parental...
By Sarah A. Topol, The New York Times Magazine | 12.14.2025
The women in House 3 rarely had a chance to speak to the women in House 5, but when they did, the things they heard scared them. They didn’t actually know where House 5 was, only that it was huge...
By Sarah Kliff, The New York Times | 12.10.2025
Micah Nerio had known since his early 30s that he wanted to be a father, even if he did not have a partner. He spent a decade saving up to pursue surrogacy, an expensive process where he would create embryos...
By Carter Sherman, The Guardian | 12.08.2025
A huge defense policy bill, revealed by US lawmakers on Sunday, does not include a provision that would have provided broad healthcare coverage for in vitro fertilization (IVF) for active-duty members of the military, despite Donald Trump’s pledge...
