Margaret Kirby

Abstract

Despite being told she would have “a stillborn PhD” if she got married, having a pitifully small starting salary as an assistant professor, and having a distinct aversion to the subject of heart development, Margaret Kirby went on to become Professor of Cell Biology at Duke University and one of the world's leading experts on heart development. She even wrote a well-known textbook on the subject.1 Kirby focused her research on cardiac neural crest cells. She had started her scientific life as a neuroanatomist and was drawn into cardiology only after discovering a population of neural crest cells in the heart. She went on to show that these cells control the division of the aorta and pulmonary artery,2 regulate growth factor signaling to the developing myocardium,3 and contribute to the development of the outflow tract.4 These studies caused significant steps forward in scientists' understanding of heart development and the defects that occur when it goes wrong. In the early 1970s, when Kirby was starting her career, women were often discouraged from pursuing science, and those who did tended to be unmarried and childless. Unbeknownst to Kirby, she was helping to forge a path for women scientists who wanted normal family lives. But, she explained to Circulation Research , she didn't blaze the trail by speaking out, she just quietly “worked her butt off.” Kirby retired from Duke University last December and now lives in Copper Harbor, Michigan, running a photography gallery. ### Where Did You Grow Up? In Fort Smith, Arkansas. My father was French; he was born in Paris and moved to America with his parents when he was about 11. They also lived in England, Cuba, and Mexico, so my father's family is pretty exotic. My mother was a 9th generation Arkansan, so just the opposite. They met in …