The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was awarded a five-yeargrant of about $5 million by the National Institutes of Health toresearch velo-cardio-facial syndrome (VCFS), a genetic birth defectthat causes a number of abnormalities in children."This grant will allow our researchers to focus on identifying genesresponsible for VCFS, create a screening test for VCFS, and todevelop criteria to help other doctors recognize at-risk patients,"Sarah Jarvis, spokeswoman for the hospital, told BioWorld. Shesaid the genetic disorder occurs as often as one in 2,000 to 3,000live births.Research will be directed by Beverly Emanuel, chief of the Divisionof Human Genetics and Molecular Biology at The Children'sHospital. She has focused much of her work on chromosome 22,which is believed to play an important role in VCFS, Jarvis said. _Jim Shrine

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