A brief history of “three-parent babies”

July 18, 2025

image of an oocyte being fertilized with a needle

(MIT Technology Review) – A UK team announced the births of eight babies born with DNA from three people. But around the world, others have already been born.

This week we heard that eight babies have been born in the UK following an experimental form of IVF that involves DNA from three people. The approach was used to prevent women with genetic mutations from passing mitochondrial diseases to their children. You can read all about the results, and the reception to them, here. 

But these eight babies aren’t the first “three-parent” children out there. Over the last decade, several teams have been using variations of this approach to help people have babies. This week, let’s consider the other babies born from three-person IVF. (Read More)