Parents such as Green might benefit from research by Youssef Kousa, a graduate student in MSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine who recently received a $65,000 award for his research on cleft lips and palates.

In January, Kousa was announced as a winner of the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health for his use of mice to research the effects of the gene interferon regulatory factor 6, or IRF6, and how it can cause the facial deformity.

“Because it’s such an important disease that affects so many people, the mouse way gives us a chance to make progress in this research,” Kousa said. “In the early stages of development, mouse and human faces form in relatively the same way.”

Approximately one in 700 children is born with a cleft lip or palate, Green said, adding children of Asian, Native American or Latino descent have a higher chance of being born with the deformity.

A regiment of surgeries, including palate repair and bone graft procedures are typical for children born with a cleft lip or palate to encounter, Green said.

Brian Schutte, associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics who worked with Kousa on the research, said relatively little is known about the cause of the disease.

“We know that it happens very early in fetal development and that there are multiple genetic factors that could contribute to the cleft,” Schutte said.

The exception to this, he said, are babies that develop van der Woude syndrome, which can cause lip pits on the bottom lip. The number of all children born with a cleft lip or palate with the syndrome is about 2 percent.

Kousa said people born with cleft lip or palate generally have more difficulty developing social skills.

“Cleft lip and palate affects how you relate to people, how people see you and how you react with people,” Kousa said. “All humans want to be able to interact and communicate with one another. Having a cleft lip or palate makes that difficult.”