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Marie-Claire King |
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Ph.D. 1972 University of California, Berkeley Departments of Medicine and Genome Sciences University of Washington |
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"Transformations in cancer biology and using biology for human rights" |
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Biography |
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“There is a human aspect to [Dr. King’s] scientific work that transforms it—whether it’s with breast cancer patients and their families, or with the families of the Disappeared,” declares Michele Harvey, former post-doc of Dr. King (http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/sept96/king2.html). Dr. King began her career as a mathematician, but upon entry to the University of California, Berkeley as a graduate student, she was lured to molecular biology by Dr. Allan C. Wilson. Her first contribution to the field of biology, while pursuing her doctorate, was proving that humans and chimpanzees share 99% of their genomes. After several stints of political activism pertaining to the Vietnam War, Dr. King received her degree and shortly thereafter began her quest for the genetic link to breast cancer. Fifteen years later, in 1990, she shocked the scientific world by identifying BRCA-1, the first identified gene of hereditary breast cancer—a gene most of the scientific community believed did not exist. With this discovery, she transformed how scientists viewed cancers: not all are caused by complex interactions between genes and the environment, rather some do have more basic hereditary causes. Dr. King and her lab continue to work extensively on the genetics of breast cancer. In addition to conducting pioneer research in breast cancer, Dr. King has used the knowledge of mitochondrial DNA inheritance to mitigate human rights issues across the world, including the families of the Disappeared in Argentina. Under a military dictatorship between 1976 and 1983 thousands of people were abducted by the government. Among these “disappeared” were children and pregnant women. The children and newborn infants were taken from their families and given high-powered families within the Argentinian government. Dr. King has used mitochondrial DNA to find the grandchildren of the Abuelas, the parents of the Disappeared, and reunite them. |
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Selected Publications |
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| King MC, Marks JH, Mandell JB; New York Breast Cancer Study Group. 2003. Breast and ovarian cancer risks due to inherited mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2. Science 302:643-6. Welcsh PL, King MC. 2001. BRCA1 and BRCA2 and the genetics of breast and ovarian cancer. Hum Mol Genet 10:705-13. Takahashi H, Behbakht K, McGovern PE, Chiu HC, Couch FJ, Weber BL, Friedman LS, King M-C, Furusato M, LiVolsi VA, Menzin A, Liu P, Benjamin I, Morgan MA, King SA, Rebane BA, Cardonick A, Mikuta JJ, Rubin SC, Boyd J. 1995. Mutation analysis of the BRCA1 gene in ovarian cancers. Cancer Res 55:2998-3002. Friedman LS, Ostermeyer EA, Lynch ED, Szabo CI, Anderson LA, Dowd P, Lee MK, Rowell SE, Boyd J, King M-C. 1994. The search for BRCA1. Cancer Res 54:6374-6382. Stratton MR, Ford D, Neuhasen S, Seal S, Wooster R, Friedman LS, King MC, Egilsson V, Devilee P, McManus R, Daly PA, Smyth E, Ponder BAJ, Peto J, Cannon-Albright L, Easton DF, Goldgar DE. 1994. Familial male breast cancer is not linked to the BRCA1 locus on chromosome 17q. Nature Genet 7:103-107. King M-C. 1992. Breast cancer genes: How many, where, and who are they? (Editorial.) Nature Genet 2:125-126. Hall JM, Lee MK, Morrow J, Newman B, Anderson LA, Huey B, King MC. 1990. Linkage of early-onset familial breast cancer to chromosome 17q21. Science 250:1684-1689. Owens KN, Harvey-Blankenship M, King MC. 2002. Genomic sequencing in the service of human rights. Int J Epidemiol 31:53-8. Ginther C, Issel-Tarver L, King M-C. 1992. Identifying individuals by sequencing mtDNA from teeth. Nature Genet 2:135-138. M.C. King, A.C. Wilson, "Evolution at two levels in humans and chimpanzees," Science, 188:107-16,1975. |
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