fibrosis, metabolic disorders, and several other diseases. Dr. Beaudet was codiscoverer of a gene for Angelman syndrome, a chromosome 15 disorder that causes serious mental retardation and physical disabilities. He is studying the role of genomic imprinting and epigenetics in causing disorders such as autism. He is an editor of The Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease. Dr. Beaudet is a member of the IOM and has served on the National Research Council Panel on Scientific and Medical Aspects of Cloning and the IOM Roundtable on Research and Development of Drugs, Biologics, and Medical Devices.
Russell W. Chesney, M.D., is Le Bonheur Professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, as well as a codirector of the Center for Pediatric Pharmacokinetics and Therapeutics at the University of Tennessee, Memphis. Dr. Chesney is principal investigator for the Pediatric Pharmacology Research Unit, 1 of 13 units in a network of the National Center for Child Health and Development. He previously was a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, Davis. He is editor of the journal Pediatric Nephrology and past president of the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology. Dr. Chesney serves as president of the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, president of the American Pediatric Society, and in 2000 was chairman of the board of the American Board of Pediatrics. His ongoing research interests include the regulation of renal amino acid transport; inherited renal tubular disorders; and the physiology, biochemistry, and clinical application of vitamin D metabolites to childhood disorders of bone and mineral metabolism.
Francis Sessions Cole III, M.D., is vice chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, the Park J. White, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, and professor of cell biology and physiology at the Washington University School of Medicine and director of the Division of Newborn Medicine at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He is a member of the Society of Pediatric Research, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the American Pediatric Society. Dr. Cole served on the IOM Committee on Palliative and End-of-Life Care for Children and Their Families. His research interests focus on the molecular basis of the susceptibility of the newborn infant to infection and, more recently, on the contribution of genetic variation in the surfactant protein B gene to the risk of respiratory distress syndrome in newborn infants.
Deborah L. Dokken, M.P.A., is a family health care advocate and consultant in family-centered care. She is a member of the Institutional Ethics Forum at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She and her husband are the parents of three children born prematurely, one of