Ozy: The Doctor who delivered the World’s First ‘Three-Person’ Baby

May 29, 2017

When reproductive endocrinologist John Zhang introduced a new in vitro fertilization technique at a medical conference in China in 1997, the audience responded with snickers and modest applause. “[They] told me my head was in the clouds,” Zhang recalls.

Twenty years later, Zhang, 53, made headlines when his team announced the delivery of the world’s first “three-person” baby using a version of the procedure known as mitochondrial replacement therapy, similar to the method that he had discussed in 1997. The infant carries DNA not only from his mother and father but also from a female donor. The procedure spared the baby from inheriting a deadly neurological disorder from his mother, stemming from a genetic mutation in the cells’ “energy factories,” or mitochondria. One day, MRT could prevent a number of mitochondrial diseases, or treat infertility more broadly by boosting an egg’s chances of leading to a pregnancy.

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