Birth Center Adds Third Staff Member

              Wife and Mother
9-27-72
Birth Center Adds
Third Staff Member By Margaret Martin
Times Medical Writer
Dr. Victoria Herzberg is a
28-year-old wife and mother of
two with a Ph.D. in human
genetics and the third member
ot the staff of the Birth Defects
Center at Louisiana State Uni-v
e r s i t y Medical School at
Shreveport.
She holds the B.A. degree in
zoology from the University of
Texas at Austin, the M.S. in
biology from St. Louis Universi-ty,
the Ph.D. in human genetics
from the University of Texas
medical branch in Galveston,
and held a postdoctoral fellow-ship
in the Galveston Medical
Branch's Department of Pedia-trics.
Dr. Herzberg is a member of
Sigma Xi, the American Asso-ciation
for the Advancement of
Science and the American Socie-ty
of Human Genetics.
She received an award given
by the National Science Founda-tion
summer I n s t i t u t e for
Teachers at City College of New
York; the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration Trai-neeship,
St. Louis University;
and the Kempner Postdoctoral
Fellowship at the University of
Texas medical branch, Galves-ton.
Papers she has authored or
coauthored have been presented
at the Texas Medical Associa-tion
Forum of Original Re-search,
Dallas, Tex., the Cystic
Kibrosis Club Abstracts, Atlan-tic
City, N.J.; the Cystic Fibro-sis
Conference, Galveston, the
Medical Program of the Nation-al
Cystic Fibrosis Research
Foundation Region 12 meeting,
and American Socitey of Human
Genetics, Philadelphia, Pa.
And she's not a token woman
on Dr. Richard Juberg's staff.
Dr. Sue Chambers is also a
fulltime member of the Birth
Defects Center.
She felt discriminated against
back when she applied to
graduate school and was told by
one institution, "we don't take
women."
Dr. Her z b e r g feels now, |
though, that hers is a field
"which is not crowded and
people are accepted as people."
Grew Up in Houston
She grew up in Houston, Tex.,
where her father was a dentist,
but has been i n t e r e s t e d in
science "as long as I can
remember."
"That sounds kind of corny,"
said the twin pony-tailed re-searcher,
who looks more like a
high school student than a
medical school instructor.
"But it's true." she added,
after thinking about it for a
moment.
The University of Texas "had
a strong genetics department
and that steered me into genet-ics,"
she e x p 1 a i n e d in the
interview in her office at the
center.
Her research at Galveston
revolved around a test for
carriers of cystic fibrosis.
The test involves use of tiny
hairs called cilia (oyster gill
cilia was used in Galveston) to
identify the carrier.
"We knew the test worked,"
said Dr. Herzberg, who worked
under Dr. Barbara Bowman.
"We didn't know why."
While they didn't find out how
it worked, "we found out how it
[didn't work — I spent a couple
of years finding out."
According to a publication
"University Medical," cystic
fibrosis a disease caused by a
protein which appears to be
defective.
There was speculation that
the defective protein might have
been an antibody created by the
victim against his own tissue.
Dr. Herzberg found in her
research that the d e f e c t i v e
protein was not an antibody.
Dr. Herzberg is sharing the
teaching duties at the Birth
Defects Center with Juberg. She
is conducting a seminar in
g e n e t i c s for junior medical
students and later in the year
will teach sophomore students.
She is also involved in coun-seling
services and working in
the center's laboratory.
In time she will get into
clinical-related research dealing
with problems which come in
through the counseling service
or patients at Confederate.
Dr. Herzberg is married to a
radiologist, Dr. Donalc Herz-berg,
who is stationed at Barks-dale
Air Force Base. They have
two children, Jill, 4, and David,
2, and reside in Broadmoor.
Being able to combine a
career with the mother and wife
role, Dr. Herzberg feels, de-pends
on the situation.
She has hired "a lady who
Dr. Victoria Herzberg
helps me take care of most of
the responsibilities at home."
To be successful at what she
is doing, there has to be
cooperation between the wife
and husband.
"There are certain things he
has to give up and certain
things she has to give up. It
| takes a lot of compromise . . . , "
said the scientist.
Both she and her husband
participate in activities which
include their children.