10 Questions for Dr. Margaret Kirby….
Having an awesome PI has made this experience very enjoyable so far. Meet Dr. Margaret Kirby, Professor of Pediatrics and Cell Biology
rnrnDr. Kirby is internationally reknown for her research in heart development. She has done breakthrough research on many crucial features required for normal heart development (arterial pole, neural crest cells,etc). Not only does she focus on these aspects, but she also looks at the BIG picture. Our project for example has its roots in epidemiology since it is looking at the effects of a toxic spill in Baltimore. She looks at her research and asks important questions such as, “How is the environment shaping this? How can this finding be directly applied to problems in society?” Dr. Kirby also teaches pediatric cardiology fellows and grad students at Duke. She is so down-to-earth and accessible. She cares a lot about everyone in the lab and makes the lab a fun place. I sat down with Dr. Kirby for a half hour yesterday and got to ask her some questions about women in science, her greatest discovery, her hobbies, and more.rnrnrnWhat got you interested in science and biology in particular?In 10th grade, my father gave me a microscope and said “I know you’re going to be a scientist.” In college, I started out as an English major but quickly switched to Biology. I didn’t know what to do with that, so I just decided to go to medical school. In medical school, I realized that research and new knowledge was what I was really interested in so I switched into a PhD program(there was no MD/PhD program at the time at my school.)rnrnrnrnYou must have been one of the only women in the field at the beginning of your career. Did you feel like there were many obstacles you had to overcome as a woman?rnIn my med school class, there were 110 people. I was one of six women. Now 50% or more than 50% of med students are women. Some say that this has made medicine “kinder and gentler.” There is still a fair amount of prejudice but we’ve come a long way. I remember the course director of my neuroscience class in med school made remarks such as “women shouldn’t be in medicine.” This came at the same time as when the Equal Rights Amendment was on the table and a senator said that all women should be “barefoot and pregnant.” There are still obstacles out there. Although more women are in the field, there are very few women in the higher ranks.rnrnMale PIs greatly outnumber female PIs here and elsewhere. What would you say to young women who are interested in research and medicine but scared about balancing professional and family life?It’s hard…no question. I’ve had many women come in and out of my lab trying to balance family and professional life. I myself had two young kids and a husband when I was getting into the field. My husband took care of the kids. It’s important to have a partner who is responsive to your needs and requirements, especially during the big steps such as tenure or a promotion. Many peoplernusually go back and forth saying “It’s your turn, now it’s my turn, etc” and it’s usually women who end up taking the hit because they just can’t stand to see their babies going around in dirty diapers. You just have to work really hard at both and you need a lot of support. You can’t do it all by yourself.rnrnrnrnWhat was your greatest discovery? How did you come to find that out?Well, what I am known for is my discovery that neural crest cells are necessary for normal heart development. In France, this group created quail/chick chimeras to observe neural crest cells in the vascular system of the neck. I used the same model to study the heart. I remember I had two high school technicians at the time because I couldn’t afford too much (they were great technicians!). They put these slides in front of me and I immediately realizedrnsomething was really wrong about their hearts. I was expecting functionalchanges, not such obvious structural changes.rnrnYou recently wrote a textbook called “Cardiac Development” which was published by the Oxford University Press.
Did you enjoy the experience?It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. It was a sustained effort. I would write it at 4 o’clock in the morning because scientists just don’t have extra time for things like this with all the grant writing, etc. It was a labor of love. This was actually in association with a medical illustrator. We had a lot of pictures so I just wanted to make sure her message got out there. That was the impetus.rnrnWhat impact are you hoping this book will have?Heart development was so mysterious in my time (it still is!).It was poorly taught and just a big mess. It’s been an uphill battle though…it’s taken me 15-20 years to feel comfortable. I thought this book might help people in the future so they don’t have to go through that. In previous heart development books, many people would be working out but they’d each write their own part (what they specialize in). This is the WHOLE story. I’m hoping it’ll help pediatric cardiology fellows, physicians, grad students, and researchers.rnrnYou are quite the photographer…How did this become a hobby of yours?It started in junior high when my neighbor taught me a lot about photography. I then came back to it in 1998 when I took a course at the New York Institute of Photography. It’s just a really fun thing to do.Here are some of Dr. Kirby’s fantastic photos!
rnrnWhat else do you do in your free time?I LOVE the outdoors. That’s my only regret about working in the lab…not being outside more.rnrnWhat is your ideal day at work?hmmm…work in the lab in the morning, have a session with a pediatric cardiologist, work on some manuscripts/reviews, journal club;I LOVE journal club and of course, local meetings here in the lab.rnrnrnrnWhat do you see as the biggest challenge in biomedical research?We’re really good at solving technical problems. We’re bad at understanding the ramifications of what we’re doing. For example, in the 40s and 50s when open-heart surgery was possible, we were doing it on children with all sorts of defects. Now that we know that many of these defects are genetic, the picture is totally different. Now the children that we fixed back then can have children and pass on those genes. We’ve subverted evolution and bred genes into the population. We need to be responsible socially. That is our biggest challenge as a species. Global warming falls in that same category. We’re not seeing the BIG picture. If we’re gonna repair hearts, we have to learn how to repair genes. We’re able to develop things technologically…we’re just missing that other side. It’s a humanistic perspective.”
Now that’s something to think about. Dr. Kirby’s last point reminded me of discussions about bioethics in my Biotechnology and New Genetics seminar first semester. Good times. Tomorrow, I will be running the anticipated Western to see which cell cycle proteins are up-regulated or down-regulated in the PCB fish (I’m sorry for smushing all you little embryos in that tube…I needed your protein!)…I ordered $1,200 worth of antibodies from Santa Cruz Biotech just for this so it better work!!