MEET Mito and Tracker (left), twin rhesus monkeys created using a DNA transplant technique that could prevent rare but devastating human diseases caused when our cells鈥� energy system is disrupted.
and colleagues at Oregon 午夜福利1000集合 and Science University in Beaverton used the fact that mitochondria, which provide cells with energy, contain their own DNA, separate from the chromosomes. Faulty mtDNA inherited from the mother can cause incurable diseases such as syndrome.
Mitalipov transferred chromosomes, but not the mtDNA, from the eggs of female monkeys into chromosome-free donor eggs that retained their own mtDNA. The team then fertilised the eggs using standard IVF (Nature, ). 鈥淚 believe it can be replicated in people very quickly,鈥� he says.
Advertisement
However, gene therapy of this kind that introduces heritable changes could make regulators nervous about human trials.