The U received a $5 million grant to study environmental and genetic factors that cause birth defects, despite the fact that other institutions participating in the study lost funding.
Researchers have been working on the multiple-center study since 2002, documenting case studies and interviews with mothers who have had children with birth defects.
“We’re looking at nutrition and other factors,” said Marcia Feldkamp, primary investigator for the Utah center and a pediatrics professor at the U School of Medicine. “During the interview, moms are asked what kind of foods they eat and whether factors increase or decrease the risk, such as certain medications, multivitamins, smoking and alcohol.”
U faculty, working alongside researchers from the Utah Department of Health, published a study last year based on their findings. Feldkamp said the study showed that before pregnancy, women with a sexually transmitted disease and urinary tract infection were four times more likely to bear children with a birth defect that places organs outside the abdominal wall.
The U began interviewing mothers in 2003, about seven years after Congress organized a network of universities and health organizations to work together on the causes behind birth defects. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitor the work and give grants for different groups to continue work.
Feldkamp said the U will receive $1 million annually for five years. The nationwide project started with seven centers in 1997 and increased within the following five years.
This year, Congress didn’t allocate as much funds to the CDC for research and three centers had to drop out of the project.
“We’re constantly interviewing moms,” Feldkamp said. “If we have a break in funding, we don’t have continuous data collection and can’t pay people.”
Feldkamp works alongside Lorenzo Botto, a pediatric genetics professor at the School of Medicine and co-investigator in the research.
Botto focuses his research on genetic heart defects, but said research from the entire study will help doctors understand and treat birth defects.
“In Utah, more than 1,000 babies are born each year with a birth defect,” Botto said in a press release. “That’s simply too many, and we have to know why they happen before we can find ways to prevent them.”
The continued grant from the center will help Feldkamp and Botto expand their research and hire more personnel for interviews and analyzing data.
Feldkamp said they are looking for clues into most birth defects, excluding birth defects they already know the cause of. She said every year each center participating in the study has to have at least 300 cases and 100 control cases for data collection.
Every year, they send out packets inviting eligible mothers to participate to increase the study’s depth.
“The ultimate goal is to understand what causes birth defects,” Feldkamp said. “Nationwide, 150,000 babies have a defect annually. This study could help change that.”