The first child to be born from 3 parents has been born a healthy baby boy. This has been an idea theorized for decades in science but never properly tested. Until now. Now to get rid of any odd ideas around what 3 means, the third person just contributes some extra DNA. See the mother in this case had Leigh syndrome (a neurological disease that usually results in death a few years after birth) in her genes but was healthy herself. The genes she carries are in her mitochondria though, not the nucleus. The mitochondria act as the power generator for the cell so any disruption can easily and severely affect a person but their DNA is very small. The unique part is that only women give their mitochondria to their children, with men being very rare. This is also where the third person comes in.
                             The basic idea is that by substituting the mitochondria with someone else’s the disease can be avoided completely, with the application for any other mitochondrial genetic diseases available as well. Since her first children died it became important to pursue this method to have children. The method used here was spindle nuclear transfer which involves taking the mother’s nucleus and transferring it from her egg into a donor egg, with brand new mitochondria since the nucleus has no mitochondria. The egg was then fertilized with the father’s sperm and implanted into the mother. An interesting side note is that this occurred in Mexico because, according to team lead Dr. John Zhang, “there are no rules.” So to anyone with mitochondrial diseases it may be possible in the near future to have children completely free from this burden. Yet another miracle of modern science, thank you doctor.