Background Craniofacial birth defects are among the most frequent developmental anomalies affecting live births. With an incidence of roughly one in 1000 children, cleft palate is the second most common birth defect and has multifactorial genetic and environmental causes. Much of our knowledge of craniofacial clefting arises from patient studies and selected animal models. It is clear that cleft palate is due to complex genetic and environmental interactions; a number of genes have been implicated but the etiology of the majority of cases is unknown. The clinical burden for cleft palate is significant. Affected children require multiple operations to address not only palate closure, but also associated problems with speech, dental occlusion, fluid buildup within the ears and possible maxillary growth deficiency. Preliminary data show that GSK-3beta, a kinase implicated in a number of de-velopmentally important signaling pathways, is required for normal development of the palate. In this study, will be using novel protein regulation techniques to study the roles of GSK-3beta in palate formation.
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