Kathleen Motil

DR. KATHLEEN J. MOTIL, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Paediatrics and a research scientist at the USDA/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, and serves as a paediatric gastroenterologist in the Section of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, TX, USA.

Dr. Motil’s research interests focus on growth and nutrition in children with rare genetic disorders, including Rett syndrome. She has conducted studies on energy and protein metabolism, oral motor and upper gastrointestinal dysfunction, and the clinical outcomes of gastrostomy placement in girls with Rett syndrome. As a part of the NIH-funded Natural History Study, she described the clinical spectrum of gastrointestinal dysfunction in girls and women with Rett syndrome. Other projects have included the natural history of low bone mass and nutritional risk factors, the clinical pattern of calcium absorption and vitamin D deficiency, and the role of dietary calcium in reversing low bone mass in girls and women with Rett syndrome. Dr. Motil has received numerous awards for her dedicated service in the field of paediatrics. She was the 2015 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.