Funding awarded to advance treatment of skeletal disorders in children

University of Birmingham Professor Grant Stewart has received £246,993 from Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity and children's medical research charity Sparks to fund research into the advancement of treatment of skeletal disorders. The award is part of a £2.1 million investment by the two charities to fund child health research projects across the UK. The injection of funds into paediatric research will provide a huge boost to an area of research that is severely underfunded. Currently paediatric research receives only five per cent of public and charitable research funding in the UK each year. Professor Grant Stewart will study cells from children with skeletal disorders to understand how genetic differences between patients affect the symptoms and severity of their condition. The research could help to uncover new ways of treating the conditions, as well as identifying children also at greater risk of developing cancer due to genetics. Professor Stewart , of the University of Birmingham's Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences , said: "I am absolutely delighted to have received funding from GOSH Charity and Sparks which will enable me to further my research into understanding how genetic defects in DNA repair genes cause disease in children.