Biopsy pipette with 17 micrometer aperture for pronuclear transfer (PNT), made by Research Instruments, used by the fertility team at the Newcastle Fertility Centre to carry out mitochondrial donation therapy (MDT) by PNT technique, c.2023.

This biopsy pipette is an incredibly thin glass 'needle' with an opening merely 17micrometers in diameter. It was designed to carry out pronuclear transfer (PNT), which means the removal of nuclear genetic material in fertilised eggs.

It was donated and used by a team at the Newcastle Fertility Centre who have developed techniques for a fertility treatment called mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT). This aims to prevent children inheriting rare but serious diseases caused by faulty mitochondria. This therapeutic treatment has led to the phrase 'three-parent babies'. In the UK, about one in 6,000 babies are affected by mitochondrial disorders. To carry out mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT) the technique of pronuclear transfer can be used removing the parents genetic material and placing it in a donor egg.

Found in nearly every cell in the body, thousands of mitochondria are dotted around a cell’s nucleus. They produce energy for the cell to function. When a person has a mitochondrial disease, the mitochondria in the cells don’t produce enough energy. The parts of the body commonly affected are those that have the highest energy demands, such as brain, muscle, liver, heart and kidney.

Mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT) involves combining both parents nuclear genetic material and placing it within a donor egg with healthy mitochondria, to avoid the risk of passing on faulty mitochondria. The Newcastle clinic became the first and only national centre licensed to perform MDT, with the first cases approved in 2018. It was reported in 2023 that the first babies had been born using this technique.