Craniosynostosis News and Research

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Complex genetics behind human cranial vault shape revealed

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and KU Leuven have discovered a suite of genes that influence head shape in humans.

17 Nov 2023

Study sheds light on the cause of craniosynostosis in infants

Craniosynostosis, the premature fusion of the top of the skull in infants, is caused by an abnormal excess of a previously unknown type of bone-forming stem cell, according to a preclinical study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine.

21 Sep 2023

Novel approach promotes bone regeneration in mice without implantation

Young babies and newborn mice can naturally heal damage to the bones that form the top of the skull, but this ability is lost in adults.

20 Apr 2023

Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s opens new Cleft and Craniofacial Program

Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's is opening a new plastic surgery program for children with facial deformities.

28 Mar 2023

Cleft lip and palate surgeries are economically undervalued relative to pediatric craniofacial procedures

Plastic surgery procedures performed to correct cleft lip and palate deformities in infants and children are economically undervalued, relative to pediatric craniofacial procedures, concludes an analysis in the March issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

24 Feb 2023

NYITCOM researcher secures NSF CAREER award to study brain-skull interactions

Akinobu "Aki" Watanabe, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM), has secured a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Program award from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

10 Mar 2021

Scientists develop novel biomaterial that accelerates bone healing

Scientists have developed a new biomaterial that helps bones heal faster by enhancing adults' stem cell regenerative ability.

30 Nov 2020

Lactating mothers' nicotine exposure may put babies at risk for skull defects

Lactating mothers who use e-cigarettes or nicotine replacement therapies may be putting their breastfed babies at risk for skull defects, a new study in animals suggests.

27 Apr 2020

Scientists identify new genetic mutation behind serious skull disorder

A collaboration led by scientists at Oregon State University, the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and Erasmus University in The Netherlands has identified a new genetic mutation behind the premature fusing of the bony plates that make up the skull.

2 Jul 2019

Flat head syndrome does not have consequences beyond cosmetics

The number of infants who develop flat head syndrome -; deformational plagiocephaly – has increased significantly since the start of the Back to Sleep campaign to combat Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in the 1990s.

23 Jun 2017

Interactions between rare and common genetic variants may contribute to craniosynostosis

During the first year of life, the human brain doubles in size, and continues growing through adolescence.

8 Sep 2016

Machine learning could become powerful tool in plastic surgery

With an ever-increasing volume of electronic data being collected by the healthcare system, researchers are exploring the use of machine learning—a subfield of artificial intelligence—to improve medical care and patient outcomes.

30 Apr 2016

Rochester scientists identify stem cells capable of skull formation, craniofacial bone repair in mice

A team of Rochester scientists has, for the first time, identified and isolated a stem cell population capable of skull formation and craniofacial bone repair in mice--achieving an important step toward using stem cells for bone reconstruction of the face and head in the future, according to a new paper in Nature Communications.

1 Feb 2016

Penn State to receive $1.84 million over five years to explore craniosynostosis

Penn State will receive $1.84 million over five years as a subcontract on a National Institutes of Health grant through the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, N.Y., to explore craniosynostosis, a birth defect that includes facial and cranial dysmorphology.

28 May 2015

Stem cell treatment repairs birth defect, provides facial regeneration for people suffering traumatic injury

Researchers have pinpointed a primary cause of a rare skull disorder in infants, and the discovery could help wounded soldiers, car-wreck victims and other patients recover from disfiguring facial injuries.

23 Apr 2015

Scientists identify two genetic risk factors for sagittal craniosynostosis

Seattle Children's Research Institute, together with an international team of scientists and clinicians from 22 other institutions, have identified two genetic risk factors for the most common form of non-syndromic craniosynostosis, a birth defect in which the bony plates of an infant's skull prematurely fuse. The condition is known as sagittal craniosynostosis and often results in an abnormal head shape and facial features.

20 Nov 2012

Two genetic factors strongly associated with non-syndromic sagittal craniosynostosis

An international team of geneticists, pediatricians, surgeons and epidemiologists from 23 institutions across three continents has identified two areas of the human genome associated with the most common form of non-syndromic craniosynostosis ― premature closure of the bony plates of the skull.

18 Nov 2012

New clues in the pathogenesis of skull and skin birth defects associated with BSS

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York have found new clues in the pathogenesis of skull and skin birth defects associated with a rare genetic disorder, Beare-Stevenson cutis gyrata syndrome.

16 May 2012

FDA grant to foster development of novel pediatric medical devices

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded the Georgia Institute of Technology, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University and Saint Joseph's Translational Research Institute (SJTRI) a two-year, $1.8 million grant to foster the development of medical devices focused on the special needs of children.

13 Oct 2011

Developing technologies to improve treatment of craniosynostosis in babies

Engineers and surgeons are working together to improve the treatment of babies born with craniosynostosis, a condition that causes the bone plates in the skull to fuse too soon. Treating this condition typically requires surgery after birth to remove portions of the fused skull bones, and in some cases the bones grow together again too quickly -- requiring additional surgeries.

8 Sep 2011