NORTH-EAST scientists have welcomed the news that a pioneering IVF-based technique they are developing to reduce the risk of mitochondrial diseases is one step closer to being available, after Parliament agreed to debate a change in the law.

Every year, about one in 6,500 children are born with severe mitochondrial diseases which can cause muscular weakness, blindness, heart failure, liver failure, learning disabilities and diabetes and can also lead to death in early infancy.

Supported by funding from the Wellcome Trust, the new techniques being developed by the team at Newcastle University involves transferring the nuclear DNA from the mother – which has all the characteristics such as height, eye colour, and hair colour – into a donor egg which has had the nuclear DNA removed.

Any child born as a result of this technique would have the nuclear DNA from its parents, but the healthy mitochondria from the donor egg. This would allow the mother to have a much greater chance of giving birth to a healthy child.

A provision in the Human Fertilisation Act tabled on Wednesday will be debated by Parliament in the New Year. If passed, the new regulations will allow the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to consider a licence for the technique to be used in Newcastle.

Professor Alison Murdoch, professor of reproductive medicine at Newcastle University, said:

“We are delighted that the government is taking this forward. The research in Newcastle is progressing quickly now, thanks to all those women who are continuing to support us by donating their eggs. But we still need more donors to come forward to enable us to drive this research forward so that we can change the lives of the many families affected."

Women who are interested in becoming potential donors should go to ncl.ac.uk/eggdonate