Pakistan, July 17 -- A world-first IVF trial in the UK has led to the birth of eight healthy babies, using a new method that greatly reduces the risk of mothers passing on genetic diseases. The technique targets mitochondrial diseases, which affect one in every 5,000 births and currently have no cure.

The procedure uses a small amount of healthy mitochondrial DNA from a donor egg combined with the mother's egg and father's sperm. This method, first approved in Britain in 2015, has been called "three-parent IVF," though only about 0.1 percent of the child's DNA comes from the donor.

Researchers at the Newcastle Fertility Centre treated 22 women, resulting in eight babies born so far. In six babies, the mutated mitochondrial DNA was reduc...