Clouthier awarded NIDCR grant to study jaw development

School of Dental Medicine Researcher David Clouthier, PhD, has been awarded a $370,375 grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) to study the role of a transcription factor in lower jaw development.

The grant is supported with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was signed into law in February 2009 to help stem the current economic crisis.  It aims to jumpstart the American economy, create and/or save millions of jobs, and lay a better foundation to meet the challenges that face our country in the 21st century.  

From Dr. Clouthier’s abstract:
Craniofacial birth defect syndromes occur in 1 out of every 250 live births and represent a large financial and social burden within our society. While numerous mouse developmental genetics studies have elucidated the basis of some of these syndromes, the cause of many more remains unknown. The phenotype of the hand2 mutant zebrafish indicates that Hand2 may be involved in establishing or maintaining a developmental domain necessary for mandibular arch development, though early lethality prevents analysis of the role of Hand2 in later arch patterning events and bone formation. Our study will directly address the function and regulation of Hand2 during lower jaw development using a combination of model systems. Together, our studies will help define how regional developmental domains necessary for facial development are established and how different domains may antagonize each other to produce a final facial plan. Such knowledge can be subsequently combined using a systems biology approach to build a more comprehensive "gene map" involved in facial formation, which could lead to significant advances in future tissue engineering approaches to treat human craniofacial anomalies.