Story update 8/26/2010: We incorrectly stated that Dr. Richard A. Spritz was from the University of Colorado in Boulder. He is actually at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.

Researchers at the University of Calgary, University of Colorado, and University of San Francisco are using 3-D scanning in a study that may someday help children who suffer from cleft lip or palate. A severe cleft lip, in particular, can be devastating for a child in terms of physical and emotional health, as well as for the family—several corrective surgeries are required to correct a cleft lip, often leading to more than one hundred thousand dollars in medical expenses.

Through this unique study, which compares the morphology (shape) of thousands of 3-D scanned faces to the DNA of each of the scanned subjects, researchers hope to identify genetic markers that point to the possibility of a person having a cleft lip or palette, explains Benedikt Hallgrimsson, a professor for the department of cell biology and anatomy at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 

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