Dr. Philip Giampietro, MD, PhD, was recently awarded $315,000 for his 1 year project, “Analyzing environmental exposures and candidate genes in congenital vertebral malformations.” The contract was awarded as part of the National Children’s Study by the National Institutes of Health – Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NIH-NICHD). This is a formative study to assess feasibility of collecting environmental, maternal and genetic risk factors associated with the development of congenital vertebral malformations in infants enrolled in the National Children’s study.