Scientists have made a major breakthrough in the battle against inherited diseases.

Researchers in the US have successfully removed a piece of faulty DNA, which causes heart disease, from an embryo for the first time.

The discovery, by a US and Korean team, could help to prevent thousands of disorders that are passed on genetically.

Results published in the Nature journal show that researchers were able to 'correct' the mutation for a heart condition "at the earliest stage of embryonic development".

The results mean the mutation - hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) - would not be passed on to future generations of children.