Interview with Irfan Kathiriya: How to Make or Break Your Heart

By: Sahiti Namburu School: Terra Linda High School

Dr. Kathiriya is a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist and Professor of Anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco who specializes in congenital heart defects at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Congenital heart defects are structural problems that affect the cardiovascular system, the heart's ability to pump blood effectively. His research focuses on how the human heart develops from a simple tube into a complex four-chambered organ and what goes wrong during this process. Congenital heart defects are one the of the most common types of birth defects, affecting about 1% of newborns. Dr. Kathiriya presented his findings during a Marin Science Seminar presentation on March 18, 2026, titled “How to Make or Break Your Heart.” He introduced how specific genes guide heart cell organization during development. His work aims to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and long-term outcomes for children born with heart conditions.

1. What initially motivated you, as a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist, to focus your research on infants with congenital heart disease? Was there a particular experience, patient interaction, or scientific discovery that shaped your path? 

My interest in congenital heart defects began when I was a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Deepak Srivastava, where I focused on how important genes work together to develop the heart before birth. During that time, a colleague, Dr. Vidu Garg, was studying families affected by congenital heart defects to understand how some of these defects could be inherited. He uncovered mutations in a gene called GATA4, which happened to be one of the genes I was studying. I helped reveal how those mutations changed the gene’s functions. These discoveries showed me how basic science could help explain how disease happens in patients, and how studying patients could help us better understand basic biology. Since then, my research has been guided by the links between congenital heart defects in patients with congenital heart defects and the biology of heart development.

2. What are some specific advancements or breakthroughs that have significantly improved patient outcomes, and how have these changes impacted your own work? 

A breakthrough in caring for newborns with serious congenital heart defects was the development of synthetic prostaglandins. For some newborns with critical heart disease, this medication can keep open a small blood vessel, which is essential for circulation and gives physicians valuable time to stabilize babies and plan life-saving treatment or surgery. Advances like this have improved survival for infants with complex heart defects. Over time, improvements in diagnosis, medical management, intensive care, surgery, anesthesia, and postoperative care have all helped children do much better than they did in earlier generations.

3. In your clinical and research experience, have you noticed any changes in the rates of congenital heart defects and severity over time?

Congenital heart defects are still the most common type of birth defect, and their frequency has not really changed. What has changed is our ability to detect them earlier and more accurately. With better prenatal imaging and newborn screening, pediatric cardiologists find many heart defects that might once have gone unrecognized. This has contributed to improvements in survival. Many children born with serious heart defects are now living longer and healthier lives because of advances in medical and surgical care. As a result, we now care for more children, teenagers, and adults living with congenital heart defects than ever before.

4. Does the timing of when a heart defect develops during embryonic growth influence how serious the defect becomes? 

Timing is important. The heart is one of the first organs to form in pregnancy, by a carefully orchestrated series of steps. If something disrupts that process at an early stage, it can sometimes lead to a more complex heart defect. If the disruption happens later, the problem may be more limited, depending on which part of the heart is developing then. However, timing is only one part of the story. The seriousness of a heart defect also depends on which structures may be affected, how much blood flow is altered, and if other genetic or developmental factors may be involved.

5. Once a heart defect forms during development, is there any stage where it can naturally correct itself, or is medical intervention always required?

Some heart defects can improve on their own. For example, small holes in the heart may sometimes close naturally as a baby grows. In those cases, careful monitoring may be all that is needed. However, many congenital heart defects do not correct themselves and require medical treatment, a procedure, or surgery. It depends on the type of defect and how much it affects the heart’s function.

Personal Reflection: Learning about congenital heart defects was especially interesting to me because I never fully understood what the term actually meant or how serious these conditions can be. Hearing about how the heart develops during early pregnancy and how small genetic changes can affect that process helped me realize the importance of this research and the impact it has on families. I also found the presentation personally meaningful because I know someone who needed a heart transplant shortly after birth. Being able to connect what I learned to a real life story made the topic feel much more personal and impactful. Overall, the talk gave me a greater appreciation for the advances in medicine and research towards these efforts.

Interview with Paloma Siegel: Water as a History Book: Stories Hidden in Alaska's Glaciers

By: Linden Levy     School: Terra Linda High School (MSEL)

Paloma Siegel

On Wednesday, January 28, 2026, the seminar was hosted by Paloma Siegel and titled Water as a History Book: Stories Hidden in Alaska’s Glaciers. Paloma Siegel is a PhD candidate at the University of Boulder, Colorado, and a graduate of Terra Linda High School's Marin School of Environmental Leadership (MSEL). Her talk discussed how ice coring works and all the things Isotopes can teach us, as it is her specialty. She also explored everything from how glaciers are formed on the molecular level to how they can help us learn all about climate change by studying their layers.


Glaciology is the study of the internal dynamics and effects of glaciers. But Siegel's specific area of study is ice coring. Ice coring is drilling with special machines into glaciers to specific depths, and then they ship the ice cores around the world to labs that can study them, or they study the cores themselves. Through special machinery and with the help of professionals, they can assign the different layers of ice to a year or a time in history. This is used to reconstruct what old climates looked like over thousands of years, and this can help us to predict future climates.

Perito Moreno Glacier

1. What would someone be surprised to know about glaciology?

Glaciology is a fascinating field with a ton of variety in science, region, and focus. Glaciers exist on all continents except Australia and can even exist near the equator in high mountainous regions. The thickest glaciers in the world exist in Antarctica, where the ice can reach 4.9 km (over 3 miles) deep (Windnagel et al., 2023)! And although glaciology as a discipline dates back to approximately the early-mid 1800s, the American McMurdo Station in Antarctica was not established until 1955, with US women first allowed to attend McMurdo in 1969 (Klein et al., 2008, “Women in Antarctica”).


2. How do you imagine glaciology changing as our world evolves due to climate change?

- In our current world changing quickly due to climate change, I imagine that glaciology will become less focused on fieldwork and international travel and more focused on remote sensing, modeling, and computer-based work. These are already prominent fields within glaciology today, but as field sites may become more inaccessible, this shift may start to occur more broadly.


3. As someone who works in Alaska studying glaciology, do you think that we can bring back some, if not all, of the glaciers that have melted?


- Within our lifetime, it is unlikely that Alaskan glaciers will return to their original size at the beginning of the 20th century and prior. The glacier loss that has already occurred is tremendous, with melt and ice loss increasing each year (Zemp et al., 2019). On longer timescales, Alaskan glaciers may rebound and continue to grow, but this may not be for a very long time.



4. To someone who aspires to enter a scientific field, especially a young woman, what advice would you give them?

- My advice to any woman seeking careers in science is to surround yourself with a kind, supportive community of people that value your independent intellectual growth and, most importantly, you as a person. Each field poses its own challenges to women, but within each discipline you can find fantastic mentors, labs, collaborators, and fellow students. I would advise any woman to continue pursuing her interests, regardless of the challenges that may come her way, and remind herself that she is meant to be in the rooms she is in, no matter what.


5. How did your time at the Marin School of Environmental Leadership impact your college career?

- My time as an MSEL student really guided me towards project-based environmental science. I have always been interested in working in an environmental field, but I really found my focus while in high school as an MSEL student. The emphasis on combined group projects, individual presentations, and independent internships provided me with a suite of valuable skills I’ve taken into my career now. Mostly, I think my time at MSEL taught me how to ask critical questions and seek advice from mentors.


6. Do you have hopes of passing any laws or policies in the future, considering that it can be difficult to remain optimistic with so many challenges in this field?


-As a research scientist, my aim throughout my career is not to create or write legislation. Rather, my hope is to contribute to relevant science that will inform future regulations and laws concerning climate change mitigation, conservation, and adaptation.

-Want to learn more about what Paloma does? click here

Personal Reflection:  In attending this Marin Science Seminar, I really enjoyed learning about a topic I didn't previously know existed. Personally, I aspire to become a marine biologist, and in hearing Paloma talk about her experiences, especially since we have similar beginnings, as we both have or will graduate from MSEL, and we were raised in the same town. Even though glaciers aren't exactly the same as the ocean, I gained a new understanding and respect for all forms of water and all the wonderful things it can teach us.

Further Reading from Paloma:
-Klein, Andrew G., Mahlon C. Kennicutt, Gary A. Wolff, Steve T. Sweet, Tiffany Bloxom, Dianna A. Gielstra, and Marietta Cleckley. “The Historical Development of McMurdo Station, Antarctica, an Environmental Perspective.” Polar Geography 31, no. 3–4 (September 2008)

-Windnagel, Ann, Regine Hock, Fabien Maussion, Frank Paul, Philipp Rastner, Bruce Raup, and Michael, “Which Glaciers Are the Largest in the World?” Journal of Glaciology 69, no. 274 (April 2023)

-“ Women in Antarctica | NZ History. Zemp, M., M. Huss, E. Thibert, N. Eckert, R. McNabb, J. Huber, M. Barandun, et al.

- “Global Glacier Mass Changes and Their Contributions to Sea-Level Rise from 1961 to 2016.” Nature 568, no. 7752 (April 18, 2019)

-Windnagel, Ann, Regine Hock, Fabien Maussion, Frank Paul, Philipp Rastner, Bruce Raup, and Michael Zemp. “Which Glaciers Are the Largest in the World?” Journal of Glaciology 69, no. 274 (April 2023)

Sources:

-Paloma's picture is from the University of Colorado Boulder's Institute of Arctic website

-Glacier photo from Tripadvisor

Learn more about Marin Science Seminar here:
MarinScienceSeminar.com