John Zhang of the New Hope Fertility Center of New York recently led a three-parent technique that resulted in the world’s first child born with two bio moms and one dad.
A Jordanian couple in Mexico sought out Zhang’s help because the mother has genes for Leigh syndrome – a fatal disorder that attacks the nervous system — and effectively was responsible for the deaths of her first two children.
With the three-parent technique, Zhang removed the nucleus of a donor’s egg and replaced it with the nucleus of the mother. This is called a spindle nuclear transfer. The new egg therefore had the nuclear DNA of the mother and the mitochondrial DNA of the donor. It was then fertilized with the father’s sperm which resulted in 5 embryos. One of the embryos was implanted in the mother
Nine months later, baby Abrahim was born.
Dr Dusko Ilic, an expert from King’s College London, told New Scientist magazine: “This is great news and a huge deal. It’s revolutionary.”
It is absolutely revolutionary as it speaks to the possibilities of same-sex couples having the ability to both be bio parents to their children one day.