MitochondrionWIKIMEDIA, LADYOFHATSA Senate committee is today (May 19) taking a first look at a bill that would extend a federal ban on mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT), STAT News reported. The technique involves replacing a woman’s mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) with genetic material from a third person (or transplanting the nucleus of a fertilized egg into a healthy, third-party cell) to prevent her from passing a severe mitochondrial disease on to her offspring.
Institutions that support MRT-related research are now lobbying Congress to lift this ban.
“We are advocating to remove the [ban] language or to modify it, to allow science around mitochondrial replacement therapy to advance,” said Lynne Boyle, director of federal relations at Oregon Health & Science University, which is home to one of the technique’s pioneers, developmental biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov.
In December 2015, Congress passed a rider to the fiscal year 2016 budget that banned the use of federal funds for research involving genetically modifying human embryos, which includes MRT. In February, the National Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report declaring the technique “ethically permissible” when limited to women at risk of transmitting a severe mitochondrial disease. The IOM recommended that MRT should only ...
