Research Comms

This episode tells the story of a team of scientists and doctors from Newcastle’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research who spent years campaigning strenuously, alongside patients, to persuade UK policymakers to pass a law that would permit the use of a pioneering but controversial fertility treatment The team from Newcastle hoped that the IVF treatment, known as mitochondrial donation, might halt the transmission from one generation to the next of a devastating, incurable and often fatal condition - mitochondrial disease - that blights the lives of many thousands of families across the world. In 2015 the five year long campaign reached a dramatic conclusion when Parliament made its landmark vote on whether or not the treatment should be allowed in the UK. It was huge victory for the campaigners, shared amongst the doctors, scientists, patients and their families but much credit has to go to the man who spearheaded the campaign, Professor Sir Doug Turnbull. Professor Turnbull is one of the world’s