Editor's Focus

Volume 84 No. 3 September 2018

Early Career Investigator

Congratulations to Lauren Kelly, the Early Career Investigator for September. A native of Canada, she quickly became interested in the science of pharmacology at Western University. She discovered a lack of research on pediatric drug usage and so became involved in pediatric drug studies. Having completed her PhD and two postdocs, she is now an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health. In an article in this issue, she and colleagues examine the standard-of-care control arm and its adequacy in pediatric clinical trials. See pages XXX and XXX

Special Article on the Fate of NIH Pediatric Research Funding

In a Special Article, Gitterman et al. review recent developments affecting the pediatric budget at the National Institutes of Health and express concern over its future uncertainty. They offer recommendations for action to limit this uncertainty and note the need for future congressional action. The Editor-in-Chief urges everyone capable of voting in the United States this fall to vote. See page XXX

Maternal questionnaires identify infants with prenatal ethanol exposure

Prenatal ethanol exposure is prevalent in the United States, yet rarely identified in infants less than 2 years of age. Bakhireva et al. administered the validated Timeline Follow-Back (TLFB) questionnaire to 93 women and found deficits in behavior in infants exposed in utero, indicating the potential for diagnosis at an earlier age. See page XXX

Greater curiosity is linked to academic achievement in kindergarten

Gargano et al. analyzed data from Using the data from 6200 children enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Shah et al. demonstrated that higher levels of curiosity were associated with greater kindergarten achievement. Fostering curiosity may be important! See page XXX

Maternal prenatal substance misuse alters newborn’s response to hypoxia in prone position

Rossor et al. studied newborns whose mothers smoked and those whose mothers both smoked and misused substances. They found no difference in baseline measures of ventilator variables. However, when infants were placed prone and exposed to hypoxia, the infants exposed to both maternal smoking and substance misuse were affected the most. Maternal substance misuse may be a risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome. See page XXX

Primary cilia length can be used to predict pathogenicity of variants in the gene for rotatin

An infant with primary microcephaly and other birth defects was determined to have a different variant in each copy of the gene that encodes rotatin. Cultured fibroblasts from the patient had fewer and shorter primary cilia. Wambach et al. conclude that length and number of primary cilia may be a biomarker for the pathogenicity of variants in the gene for rotatin. See page XXX