Mary Claire King, Who Changed Cancer History by Discovering the BRCA Gene

All discoveries in cancer come from those who devote their lives to knowledge and uncovering truth, heroes of science. The discovery of BRCA genes, beginning a new era in cancer genetics, is a prime example. Let us explore the story of the professor who discovered BRCA1 genes, Mary Claire King.

Mary Claire King was born in Chicago, United States. Although she began her academic life in mathematics, a genetics course changed her doctoral plans. She began genetics research at the University of California, Berkeley. King was a strong human rights advocate and protested America's invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. She was expelled from school for this and worked with consumer rights lawyer Ralph Nader, focusing on how pesticides affected farmers.

She later returned to Berkeley. In April 1975, Science published her historic genetics study. She successfully explained in detail that chimpanzee and human amino acid sequences are 99% similar.

King also focused on breast cancer . At the time, the common belief was that cancer was viral. She believed it was genetic and partly hereditary. From 1976, she and her team investigated familial cancers, gathering as much information as possible from patients and families.

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In 1984, she combined human rights advocacy with her passion for genetics. Using mitochondrial DNA, she tried to establish family trees and reunited children abducted during the war in Argentina with their families.

In 1990, Science published the study that would enter cancer genetics history. Professor King and her team identified a new breast cancer gene on chromosome 17: BRCA1. Moreover, she discovered it before the Human Genome Project was completed.

This discovery marked an important step in cancer genetics. BRCA1 tests enabled risk planning for millions of women. Further analyses of BRCA1 led to drugs called PARP inhibitors .

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Professor Claire is now 72 and continues working at the University of Washington's Genome Sciences center. She is a scientist, activist, teacher and mother. Her life teaches us much: never give up in science and keep working. If you want new Claires to grow around you, help your children love science. One more thing: in recent years, Claire made another discovery, successfully identifying the relationship between schizophrenia and genetic mutations .

May You Always Keep Science in Your Life...

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