Ozcleft is a new and exciting project at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. The project aims to uncover new genetic causes of cleft lip and palate.
Researchers now know that a more thorough examination of family members can reveal some subtle similarities with the child with a cleft, even though they do not appear to have any clefts themselves. For example; it is well known that children with clefts of the lip and palate may have a missing tooth (usually but not always in the area of the cleft), and now there is some evidence that other members of that individual’s family may also have missing, small or misshapen teeth. Non-cleft family members may also have nasal speech, slight differences in their lip muscles and/or differences in face shape/size. A better understanding of these subtle features may help researchers identify new genes involved in clefting. This would also improve our genetic counselling of the family and over all management of their child’s condition.
Under the leadership of Professor’s Nicky Kilpatrick and Ravi Savarirayan, a team of clinicians and researchers from the Royal Children’s Hospital Cleft Service and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute have secured funding to set up a project to look for these new findings in Victorian cleft families. The success of this project, which was launched at the Victorian CleftPALS AGM on May 11th, will depend on support from and participation of families. For further information please contact either Supriya Raj (OzCleft project manager on 9345 4109 or ozcleft@mcri.edu.au) or any member of the RCH Cleft service.