First baby born from IVF technique which eliminates inherited disease

Lucas Meagu was at high risk of inheriting a rare form of muscular dystrophy.  Lucas’ mother Carmen, 26, who works in recruitment, inherited Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease from her father who suffered with the illness all his life.

The genes responsible for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease were isolated.  Doctors took DNA swabs from Mrs Meagu, her mother and Lucas’s father Gabriel, 30, who works for Vodafone.They then compared the gene sequences at 300,000 different points of the chromosomes to work out which section of genetic code was defective and responsible for the abnormality.The couple then underwent a normal IVF cycle but, crucially, the embryos created from the procedure were biopsied to find out which ones were free of the genetic disease.  Read more…