Mary-Claire King

Mary-Claire King (born February 27, 1946) is an American geneticist. She was the first to show that breast cancer can be inherited due to mutations in the gene she called BRCA1. She studies human genetics and is particularly interested in genetic heterogeneity and complex traits. She studies the interaction of genetics and environmental influences and their effects on human conditions such as breast and ovarian cancer, inherited deafness, schizophrenia, She has been the American Cancer Society Professor of the Department of Genome Sciences and of Medical Genetics at the University of Washington School of Medicine since 1995.

Early life Mary-Claire King was born on February 27, 1946, to Harvey and Clarice King of Wilmette, Illinois, near Chicago. Her father worked for Standard Oil of Indiana.

King was accepted into the graduate program at the University of California, Berkeley, and soon became politically active. She helped to organize protests against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in 1970. She says: "The single most effective thing we did was on the day after the US invaded Cambodia, we got out our suit jackets and shirtwaist dresses – not clothes that any of us had worn since coming to Berkeley – and went to the synagogues and churches and by the end of Sunday we had 30,000 letters opposing the action." She dropped out of university briefly after the National Guard was sent in against student protestors. In her doctoral work at Berkeley, King demonstrated through comparative protein analysis that chimpanzees and humans were 99% genetically identical. King's work supported Allan Wilson's view that chimpanzees and humans diverged only five million years ago, and King and Wilson suggested that gene regulation was likely responsible for the significant differences between the species. King completed her thesis in 1972, and received her doctorate in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973. She later learned that a number of her colleagues and students had either disappeared or been killed.

Family King's younger brother Paul King, a mathematician and business consultant, was the CEO of Vanalco in Vancouver, Washington.

King married ecologist Robert K. Colwell in 1973. They have one child. King and Colwell divorced in 1983.

Career King accepted a faculty appointment at the University of California, Berkeley, as professor of genetics and epidemiology in 1976. She remained at UC Berkeley until 1995, when she accepted an appointment as the American Cancer Society Professor at the University of Washington. She also served on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2015.

Research Breast cancer From 1974 to 1990, King carried out years of painstaking research, seeking a genetic marker, an identifiable piece of genetic material, that tended to accompany the presence of breast cancer in families. For much of that time, the predominant theory was that cancer was viral. Most scientists disregarded or attacked her ideas. The idea that genetic patterns could be linked to the incidence of complex diseases was considered an unlikely long shot. In 1991 King officially named the gene BRCA1. In December 1994, King and her collaborators published results based on a second cohort of families. A second gene, BRCA2, was also found. These two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, work to clean up cells in the body that have been harmed by things such as tobacco or just help clean the cells because they have aged. When these genes do not perform these functions, cells will grow and divide quickly, leading to some types of cancers. Both genes worked to suppress the development of cancer tumors, but certain types of genetic mutations could prevent them from doing so.

In 1996, with support from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) Mary-Claire King and social worker Joan Marks began the New York Breast Cancer Study, which definitively determined that incidence of breast and ovarian cancer was linked to inherited mutations of the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. The researchers studied women of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry in New York, a group that was known to have a very high incidence of breast cancer (up to an 80% risk by age 70, compared with 12% in the general population). She has also studied the incidence of breast cancer in Palestinian women.

The discovery of the "breast cancer gene" revolutionized the study of numerous other diseases and phenotypes. The model and technique King developed to identify BRCA1 has since proven valuable in the study of many other illnesses and conditions.

Hearing loss and deafness Since 1990, King has been working in collaboration with scientists around the world to identify genetic causes of hearing loss and deafness. They localized the first nonsyndromic deafness-related gene, DFNA1, in a Costa Rica kindred, and successfully cloned the gene in 1999.

King continues to work with scientists Karen Avraham at Tel Aviv University in Israel and Moien Kanaan at Bethlehem University in Palestine, modeling international scientific cooperation in conjunction with conducting scientific research. Hereditary deafness is common among some Palestinian and Israeli communities, providing good study populations to understand the genetics of this condition.

We understand that working together transcends politics. It's possible to do beautiful useful science together, even between countries that are in conflict.|Mary-Claire King, 2018

Human Genome Diversity Project King has also worked on the Human Genome Diversity Project, led by Luca Cavalli-Sforza. The project seeks to delineate the distinctions among individuals in order to further understanding of human evolution and historical migrations.

Romanov exhumation King is well known for her work on the forensic determination of individual identity, in particular the use of mitochondrial DNA from teeth. King was invited to participate in DNA investigations of the first analysis of Romanov remains exhumed in 1991 in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Beginning in 1977 Las Abuelas ("the grandmothers") had gathered to protest the disappearance of their grandchildren and seek their return. Every Thursday, they marched to the central plaza in Buenos Aires ("Plaza de Mayo") to demand the return of their grandchildren, and they began gathering data trying to identify the many missing children (estimated to be 400–500).

King has worked with numerous human rights organizations, such as Physicians for Human Rights and Amnesty International, to identify missing people in countries including Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Rwanda, the Balkans (Croatia and Serbia), and the Philippines. King's lab has also provided DNA identification for the U.S. Army, the United Nations,

Awards, prizes, and honors Dr. King has won numerous awards, prizes, and honors for her scientific and humanitarian work, including:.

2025, Woman Innovator of VinFuture Prize 2025, Princess of Asturias Award 2025, National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal 2021, Canada Gairdner International Award. 2020, William Allan Award, American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2018, Mendel Medal 2018, Advocacy Award, American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2018, Shaw Prize in Medicine, China 2018, Dan David Prize, Israel 2018, Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences 2017, TNQ Distinguished Lectures in the Life Sciences, Seventh Annual Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series 2016, National Medal of Science (awarded in 2014, announced in 2015) 2016, TUBA Academy Prize in Health and Life Sciences, TÜBA – Turkish Academy of Sciences 2014, HudsonAlpha Life Sciences Prize 2014, Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science 2013, Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize 2012, member, American Philosophical Society 2010, CSHL Double Helix Medal Honoree 2006, Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Medicine 2006, Weizmann Women & Science Award, Weizmann Institute of Science 2005, member, National Academy of Sciences 2005, Association for Molecular Pathology, Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics 2004, Gruber Prize in Genetics, Gruber Foundation 1999, Basic Science Award, Brinker International Awards for Breast Cancer Research, Susan G. Komen for the Cure 1996, inaugural Jill Rose Award, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation 1994, Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine) 1994, G. H. A. Clowes Award, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) & Eli Lilly and Company 1993, Fellow, AAAS 1993, Woman of the Year, Glamour Magazine 1993, Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement 1992, Susan G. Komen Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievement in Breast Cancer, Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Honorary degrees 2026, Doctor of Science honoris causa, New York University 2023, Doctor of Science honoris causa, Universidad de Buenos Aires 2019, Doctor of Science, Williams College 2018, Doctor of Science, University of British Columbia 2016, Doctor of Science honoris causa, The University of Hong Kong 2010, Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, Rockefeller University 2008, Princeton University 2007, Yale University 2006, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 2005, Brown University 2003, Doctor of Science honoris causa, Columbia University 2003, Doctor of Science honoris causa, Harvard University; 1995, Doctor of Science, Bard College 1994, Smith College 1992, Carleton College

Notable professional service Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Minority Medical Faculty Development Program, Scientific Advisory Board United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) United Nations Forensic Anthropology Team National Cancer Institute's Breast Cancer Task Force National Institutes of Health Genome Study Section Office of Research on Women's Health Advisory Board

King has five patents and over 250 peer-reviewed journal articles.