The sisters 'genetically designed' in a lab to remove killer disease that runs in their family from their DNA



Karen Mulchinock has Huntington's disease and it also killed her father

She knew if she had children naturally there was a 50% they'd have it

Daisy and Rosie were conceived using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis

This allowed doctors to only select healthy embryos to implant

They are thought to be the only siblings in the UK to both have been conceived in this way



They look just like any two adoring young sisters.



But three-year-old Rosie Mulchinock and five-month-old Daisy have been ‘genetically designed’ in a laboratory to beat an incurable disease that runs in their family.



In a first of its kind in the UK, the pair were born from embryos that were screened by scientists to ensure they would not suffer Huntington’s disease.



Rosie (left) and Daisy (right) Mulchinock were both 'genetically designed' in a laboratory to ensure they would not develop an incurable disease that runs in their family. They are pictured with their parents Karen and Phillip

Their mother Karen, who has the killer disease herself and has already watched it kill her father, knew that if she were to have children there was a 50 per cent chance of passing it on.



But thanks to this new ‘designer’ technique called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - where only healthy embryos are inserted back into the womb and unhealthy ones discarded - sisters Rose and Daisy have been born free from the disease.



It is believed to be the only case in the UK where two babies in the same family have been born using this method.

Mrs Mulchinock, 35, a procurement team retailer, said: ‘It is probably the greatest achievement of my life - giving them a life where they don’t have to face an uncertain future.’



Huntington’s disease is a hereditary disorder of the nervous system which affects the brain, usually when the victims are in early middle age.



‘Knowing that they will never develop this devastating condition is the best feeling in the world. I can’t thank the doctors enough.



Scientists were able to select healthy embryos and to implant these into their mother's womb to remove the risk of them having Huntington's disease

‘This disease stole our father away from us. He was diagnosed with it in his late 50s and we had to watch as his behaviour changed, his balance went and his personality completely changed.’



She added: ‘Knowing that I am going to develop the disease too, like my father did, is difficult and we don’t talk about it much.



WHAT IS PGD?

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis is available to couples who are at high risk of having a child with a genetic or chromosome disorder.

The aim is to obtain and fertilise some eggs which, when they have developed into embryos, can be tested for the abnormality.

Up to two unaffected, healthy, embryos can then be transferred to the mother's womb in the hope they will implant and she will become pregnant. If this is successful, she will have a baby without the condition.

Source: Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

‘We will have to face it in the future but for now, we just want to concentrate on bringing our family up.’



PGD has caused controversy in recent years, with critics condemning it as ‘meddling with nature’.



Many people believe that life begins at conception and the destruction of embryos just because they are not completely healthy is ethically wrong and equates to the destruction of a person.



But Mrs Mulchinock, from Derby, believes their motive was justified.



She said: ‘Our only other option was if I became pregnant, to have the baby tested at 12 weeks and then make a decision whether to keep it.



‘Or to go ahead without any testing at all and just hope for the best. So we decided we wanted to try PGD instead.’



The couple had one course of treatment at a hospital in London in 2006 which was unsuccessful and then they went to CARE Fertility in Nottingham in November 2009.



Mrs Mulchinock underwent a cycle of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and doctors found that half the embryos had the defective gene.



Two were selected which were free from the condition and put back into her womb and the rest discarded or donated to scientists in order to carry out research.



Mrs Mulchinock knows that she will develop Huntington's disease and her father died of it so she wanted to ensure that her children were not at risk as well

Two weeks later she found she was pregnant, and the pregnancy went smoothly. Rose was born in August 2010 at the Derby Royal Hospital.



The couple then had another attempt two years later, but that was unsuccessful. It was on their third attempt that she managed to conceive again.



WHAT IS HUNTINGTON'S DISEASE?

Huntington's is an incurable disease caused by an inherited faulty gene, which produces a protein called Huntingtin.

It's not known how, but the gene causes widespread damage to the nerve cells in the brain, causing a range of symptoms.

Sufferers can exhibit emotional and mental changes such as mood swings, clumsiness, lack of motivation, aggression and depression which, in the early stages, can often be written off as simple personality traits.

Later, they develop physical problems such as the shakes or nervous tics, then weight loss and muscle weakness which leave the patient unable to swallow, speak or move.

Every sufferer has a different rate of deterioration, but it is a fatal condition.

Huntington's is estimated to affect around 8,000 people in the UK.

In adults the symptoms usually appear between 35 and 50, although until a blood test was introduced around 20 years ago, it was very difficult to diagnose it at an early stage.

She said: ‘This time we only had one embryo which was free from the disease, so it really was the only and only chance we had.’

Mrs Mulchinock added: ‘To have done it successfully a second time was the most amazing feeling.



‘We have managed to stop this disease now in our family, as it can’t be passed any further down the line.



‘Now they can live their lives to the full.



‘We can’t thank the doctors enough for giving us the chance of having a healthy family.’



Colleen Lynch, Molecular Geneticist from CARE Fertility said: ‘We are not aware of another case like this in the UK.



'It is extremely rare, and it’s a massive weight off the minds of this family to know that their little girls have been born free from such a terrible disease.



‘It’s a disease that devastates families, and to have eradicated that disease from this family by using this technique is wonderful.’

