Mitochondrial disorders affect about 1 in 10,000 people and can cause a range of medical problems from stunted growth, vision loss, neurological disorders to kidney disease. However, researchers from The New York Stem Cell Foundation Laboratory and Columbia University Medical Center may have found a way to prevent inheritance of these disorders with a technique that involves transferring a cell’s nucleus, and not its mitochondrial DNA, into a different human egg.
But before the procedure can be used clinically, Egli says additional studies need to repeat and perfect this results. And the public needs to become more comfortable with the idea of swapping egg cells, something that may still be too much of a social and ethical hurdle for many. “I think to a large extent [the greatest challenge ahead] is the opinion of people. Can we convince people that we should be doing this now? We need to have a public discussion between patients and providers.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
