Laura Irving, a scientist in North England is trying to determine whether combing the genes of three people could replace healthy DNA with Dna that cuases defects in babies. Irving and her team hope to help woman carrying fetuses with genetic disorders.
Irving and her team at Newcastle university would like to help genetic disorders which have no cure by altering the genetic DNA and replacing it with healthy DNA. Dr. Doug Turnball whom is the head of this research project is looking at mitochondrial diseases in fetuses. He believes that by replacing the defective mitochondrial DNA with healthy DNA it could prevent the diseases from happening at all.
This project is very risky and would be the first time that scientists would be manipulating a human beings DNA. This means any baby born from this project would have the DNA of three peopel which has never occurred before.
I find this project very interesting because it could help save many babies lives. This could make many mothers who have a defective mitochondrial DNA have a chance of having healthy babies. If this really works in the end it could have amazing outcomes and many children would be without the horrible uncurable diseases that some face now.
Article Link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/11/10/360342623/combining-the-dna-of-three-people-raises-ethical-questions
Supporting Link: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/genetics/vgec/highereducation/topics/recombinanttechniques
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