Mary Herbert

Professor Herbert is a pioneer of mitochondrial donation and reproductive biology. She was at the forefront in the development of technologies and evidence that brought about changes in legislation to introduce mitochondrial donation to the UK.

Mitochondrial donation involves removing the nuclear DNA from a patient’s egg that contains faulty mitochondria. The nuclear DNA is then inserted into a healthy donor egg, whose own nuclear DNA has been removed. As the nuclear DNA is retained, the unique genetic information (that makes us who we are and determines what we look like) is passed on from mother to child, but the mitochondrial defects are not.