| (Manchester, CT)—Mustafa Khokha, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, has been awarded a Basil O’Connor Starter Research Grant funded by the March of Dimes Connecticut Chapter. This $75,000 grant will help Dr. Khokha launch his independent research project aimed at improving understanding of the causes of skeletal birth defects, and ultimately learning how to prevent them.
Over the past six decades, March of Dimes grantees have achieved a remarkable track record of lifesaving breakthroughs for babies. One way the March of Dimes seeks to ensure ongoing progress in the fight to save babies is by encouraging some of the nation’s most promising young scientists, like Dr. Khokha, to commit to careers in birth defects research. This is the goal of the Basil O’Connor Starter Research Grants Program, which the March of Dimes began in 1973. More than 2,000 young researchers have received the award since then. The greater majority have continued research on birth defects, four have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and one is the Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Birth defects involving the spine and limbs are common and the causes of
many of them are poorly understood. In addition, up to 1 in 200 children in the United States require treatment for scoliosis (curvature of the spine), which can result in back pain, and in severe cases, breathing difficulties. Some cases of scoliosis are caused by congenital defects of the vertebrae of the spine. Dr. Khokha is studying the role of two genes (noggin and gremlin) in development of the embryonic skeleton, for insight into how abnormalities in these genes may contribute to vertebral and other skeletal defects. This information may lead to improved treatments for scoliosis and other spinal defects, and ultimately, to new ways to prevent them.
Dr. Khokha received his medical degree from Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago in 1995. Following this, he completed his medical residency at St. Louis Children’s Hospital/Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and did postdoctoral research at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and the University of California-Berkeley. He joined Yale University in 2006.
The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education and advocacy to save babies and in 2003 launched a campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth. For more information, visit the March of Dimes Web site at marchofdimes.com or its Spanish language Web site at nacersano.org.
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