CHILDREN’S CHARITY SPARKS AWARDS £73,437 for MEDICAL RESEARCH at the UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
Children’s charity, SPARKS has awarded two grants, worth a total of £73,437, for medical research at the University of Aberdeen. The grant will be announced officially by Captain Hugh Peers on behalf of SPARKS in the Institute of Medical Sciences at 6.30pm on Wednesday 6 May.
A team led by Professor Julian Little, Medicine and Therapeutics Department, will receive £40,402 over two years for research into cleft lip and palate. Clefts of the lip or palate are among the most common types of congenital anomaly in the UK occurring about once every 650 live births, and affected children require multi-disciplinary care from birth until adulthood.
Professor Little’s research - with collaborators in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and Manchester - is comparing maternal diet and vitamin supplement use in early pregnancy and genetic factors affecting folate metabolism of mothers of children with clefts of the lip or palate and a sample of unaffected children’s mothers. He says:
“The SPARKS funding will enable us to collect and analyse blood samples from mothers of infants with and without clefts of the lip or palate to enhance our initial research. This will improve the understanding of the possible contribution of folate metabolism to the occurrence of clefts of the lip and palate and aid in the development of a strategy for primary prevention.”
Professor Neva Haites and Mr Nicola Maffuli, Orthopaedics have been awarded £33,035 over one year for a study into the causes and management of club foot. The study will investigate the genetic inheritance and the result of orthopaedic management in patients with congenital talipes equinovarus (club foot). Approximately one child in one thousand is born with club foot, where their feet point towards each other and downwards instead of straight ahead. Unfortunately, the cause are still not fully understood.
Professor Neva Haites is investigating whether abnormal genes play a role in the condition and how club foot is passed on from parents to children. She says:
“In our study, medical researchers will visit families who have a member with club foot. The family will be interviewed and data gathered will be analysed to aid understanding of how club foot is inherited which we hope will lead to improved treatment or even prevention in the future. Evaluating the results of those who have had operations for club foot will demonstrate how much those operations have help. The research will be invaluable in the fight against a distressing condition which can have serious effects on a person’s mobility.”
SPARKS was founded by top sports personalities to help alleviate suffering in children. It raises funds through a wide range of fun sporting events in order to finance medical research projects at hospitals and universities throughout Britain.