Van der Woude syndrome (VWS) is the most common type of syndromic orofacial cleft, being characterised by variable association of lower lip pits, cleft lip and cleft palate. VWS is transmitted in an autosomal dominant manner, with high penetrance and variable expressivity, and a gene for this disease has been mapped in 1q32-q41. Very recently, mutations of the interferon regulatory factor 6 (IRF6) gene have been found in VWS patients, suggesting that this gene plays an important role in the orofacial development. We report a novel mutation of the IRF6 in an Italian family with six members affected by VWS with different expression. This mutation, the W217X, produces a stop codon within exon 6 of the IRF6 gene, with loss of the SMIR domain of the IRF6 protein.