Dr Mary-Claire King gave free lectures in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Kolkata in February 2017. She was the Featured Speaker of the Seventh Annual Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series, aimed at bringing internationally renowned scientists to the Indian scientific community.
Professor King may be best known for demonstrating that breast and ovarian cancer can be inherited genetically rather than occurring only by chance or from environmental influences. She and her colleagues pinpointed a gene, BRCA1, which carries mutations that dramatically increase a woman’s risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer during her lifetime.
Another seminal contribution from Dr King’s research was the insight that despite dramatic differences in appearance, humans and chimpanzees share 99% of their genetic code, paving the way for greater understanding of how genomes change during evolution and the relationships of humans to other primates.
In addition to her work on inherited breast and ovarian cancer, Dr King is currently studying the genetic bases of schizophrenia and of severe pediatric disorders. She is the American Cancer Society Professor of Medicine and Genome Sciences at the University of Washington. She graduated cum laude with a degree in mathematics from Carleton College, completed her PhD in genetics at the University of California, Berkeley and was a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco.
A call for cheaper genetic screening, The Hindu
This is an opportunity for Indian scientists to adopt new technologies, The Hindu
Fight breast cancer with genetic test, The Hindu
Breast cancer is a cancer of prosperity Mary Claire King, The Hindu
India can bring down cost for breast cancer detection says us scientist, Financial Express
Protecting women from breast cancer, The Hindu