Spangenberg gained national recognition for his firm by stepping forward to represent Canadian children injured by the birth-defect-causing morning sickness medication Thalidomide.
::Evaluation of novel immune-based therapies using interferons, GM-CSF, G-CSF, thalidomide, IL-2, IL-12, cyclosporin (CsA), prednisone, cytotoxic agents, therapeutic immunization
Treatment modalities include antiviral drugs such as ganciclovir for human herpesvirus type 8 (HHV-8), chemotherapy, corticosteroids, immunomodulators, monoclonal antibodies against IL-6, and thalidomide.
Typical factors causing developmental toxicity are radiation, infections (e.g. rubella), maternal metabolic imbalances (e.g. alcoholism, diabetes, folic acid deficiency), drugs (e.g. anticancer drugs, tetracyclines, many hormones, thalidomide), and environmental chemicals (e.g. mercury, lead, dioxins, PBDEs, HBCD, tobacco smoke).
In 1949 he took up the chair of biochemistry at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London where, in the 1950s, he worked on the metabolism of thalidomide.