Birth Defects News and Research

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Zika virus vaccine candidate found to be safe and effective in preclinical animal studies

A Zika virus vaccine candidate is effective at preventing the Zika virus passing from mother to fetus in preclinical animal studies, according to a new study in the journal npj Vaccines.

1 Feb 2022

Researchers detect Delta variant in the blood and placentas of women who had pregnancy complications

A growing body of evidence has linked the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, with an increased risk for pregnancy complications, including stillbirths.

13 Jan 2022

Moderna announces initiation of Phase 1 study of its mRNA-1189 EBV vaccine candidate

Moderna, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines, today announced the first participant has been dosed in the Phase 1 study of mRNA-1189, the Company's Epstein-Barr Virus vaccine candidate.

7 Jan 2022

Pandemic poses short- and long-term risks to babies, especially boys

The pandemic has created a hostile environment for pregnant people and their babies. Stress levels among expectant mothers have soared. Pregnant women with covid are five times as likely as uninfected pregnant people to require intensive care and 22 times as likely to die. Infected moms are four times as likely to have a stillborn child.

21 Dec 2021

Children conceived with assisted reproductive techniques are not at risk of poor psychiatric health

Use of assisted reproductive techniques (ART) does not lead to poorer mental health in children across adolescence and young adulthood, according to a large observational study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

15 Dec 2021

Researchers discover mechanism for congenital disorders of glycosylation

Greenwood Genetic Center researchers are reporting the discovery of a mechanism that contributes to the tissue phenotypes seen in PMM2-CDG, the most common of the congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDGs).

8 Dec 2021

Data reveals higher autism prevalence in CDC’s ADDM Network

One in 44 (2.3%) 8-year-old children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder according to an analysis of 2018 data published today in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Surveillance Summaries.

2 Dec 2021

Financial incentives effective in helping pregnant smokers stop smoking

Pregnant women are more likely to stop smoking if financial incentives are offered as part of a treatment plan, finds a trial from France published in The BMJ today.

2 Dec 2021

New study offers genetic insight into why we look the way we do

Which genes control the defining features that make us look as we do? And how do they make it happen?

11 Nov 2021

CHOP-led network receives NIH-supported resources to unlock mysteries behind pediatric brain tumors

Unlocking the genetic mysteries behind pediatric brain tumors is at the heart of the mission of the Center for Data Driven Discovery in Biomedicine (D3b) at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The Children's Brain Tumor Network (CBTN), a multi-institutional brain tumor research program with its operations center housed at D3b, has collected tumor samples from patients all over the world.

3 Nov 2021

Covid immunity through infection or vaccination: Are they equal?

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, a University of California-Irvine psychiatry professor, felt he didn't need to be vaccinated against covid because he'd fallen ill with the disease in July 2020.

8 Oct 2021

Scientists identify potential treatment for previously unknown condition affecting children

Researchers from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's (A*STAR) Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), and Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine identified a previously unknown condition affecting children, which they discovered could be prevented by administering a drug during pregnancy.

2 Oct 2021

Researchers find potential cure for a previously unknown childhood genetic condition

Describing a previously unknown genetic condition that affects children, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine say they also found a potential method to prevent the gene mutation by administering a drug during pregnancy.

29 Sep 2021

Child deaths from surgical conditions found to be too high in Sub-Saharan Africa

Child deaths from surgical conditions such as birth defects are too high in Sub-Saharan Africa compared with high-income countries because of a lack of focus on surgical diseases in children in the region, a study finds.

28 Sep 2021

Smoking during pregnancy increases risk of birth defects and neurological disorders

Mothers who smoke are more likely to deliver smaller babies even after a full-term pregnancy, increasing the risks of birth defects and neurological disorders later in life, say researchers from McGill University.

21 Sep 2021

Researchers identify mechanism behind structural birth defects in fetuses of mothers with diabetes

More than 3 million women of birthing age in the U.S. and 60 million in the world have diabetes-;a disease that occurs when blood sugar is too high.

10 Sep 2021

Scientists create a novel cell model for understanding human development

The earliest moments of human development—between the time of fertilization and when the embryo implants in the womb—have remained opaque to scientists.

9 Sep 2021

Penn study shows how certain proteins have evolved to suppress cheating chromosomes

Eggs and sperm are special cells for many reasons, but one of the characteristics that sets them apart is that, unlike other human cells, which have two copies of 23 chromosomes, one from the mother and one from the father, these sex cells, or gametes, have only one.

25 Aug 2021

Drinking, smoking throughout the first trimester of pregnancy associated with higher stillbirth risk

Drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco cigarettes throughout the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with nearly three times the risk of late stillbirth (at 28 or more weeks), compared to women who neither drink or smoke during pregnancy or quit both before the end of the first trimester, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health.

23 Aug 2021

Researchers identify human sperm mutations that can cause disease in children

Throughout development, life and the processes of aging, all human cells accumulate mutations, resulting in what is called mosaicism, a condition in which different cells in the same person have different DNA sequences or genetic makeup.

12 Aug 2021