Mary-Claire King,
Pioneering Geneticist and Social Activist,
Wins International Genetics Prize

Peter Gruber Foundation Cites
University of Washington Professor and Researcher
for Contributions to Women’s Health and Human Rights

St. Thomas, U.S.V.I., November, 2004 -- Leading geneticist Mary-Claire King, who proved the existence of the first gene for hereditary breast cancer and has long promoted the application of genetics to benefit humanity, was selected by an international panel of experts to receive the 2004 Genetics Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation. Dr. King is the American Cancer Society Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

The Foundation annually presents its gold medal and a $200,000 unrestricted cash award to an outstanding scientist who has contributed to fundamental advances in the field of genetics. This year’s prize was presented on October 27 at the meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Toronto, Canada.

The official citation reads:

“The Genetics Prize of The Peter Gruber Foundation is hereby proudly presented to Professor Mary-Claire King, University of Washington. By genetically locating a gene predisposing to breast cancer, Dr. King established a new paradigm for analyzing genetic contributions to common human diseases. She pioneered the use of DNA testing in human rights by identifying the orphaned children of political dissidents killed during the dark days of Argentinean dictatorship. Her intellectual contributions and her personal courage are models for how both the theory and methods of genetics may be applied to benefit humanity.”

Born in a suburb of Chicago in 1946, Mary-Claire King graduated from Minnesota’s Carleton College with a B.A. in Mathematics at the age of 19, and received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973. She was a professor of both Genetics and Epidemiology at UC-Berkeley from 1976 until moving in 1995 to the University of Washington where her laboratory focuses on the identification and characterization of genes responsible for complex, common human conditions.

Dr. King’s groundbreaking insights led to the discovery that mutations in a single gene, BRCA1, cause breast cancer in many high-risk families, thereby creating a revolution in human genetics. The discovery permanently changed thinking about the genetics of common diseases and has been successfully emulated by researchers studying many other serious diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and prostate cancer.

Dr. King also has a long involvement in promoting the human rights applications of genetics. As a young scientist she was a teacher and researcher in Chile. Her experiences in South America inspired her ongoing project to assist the “Abuelas,” the Grandmothers of the children of those killed during Argentina’s “dirty war” in the 1970s and early 1980s. These parents of “the Disappeared” seek to be reunited with the children of their lost sons and daughters, and a genetic test that matches maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA sequences is often the only way to confirm that link. In addition, Dr. King oversees a collaboration between Israeli and Palestinian scientists to identify genes for deafness.

“Genetics passes on to us important information about our inheritance,” said Peter Gruber, chairman of the Peter Gruber Foundation. “We are extremely pleased to honor the work of Dr. Mary-Claire King. She is an innovative researcher and a powerful advocate for the synergy of science and social action.”

The Genetics Prize was established in 2001 and is recognized as the leading international prize in the field. Previous winners are Dr. Rudolf Jaenish (2001), a pioneer in using mice to study and develop treatments for human diseases, Dr. H. Robert Horvitz (2002), the recent Nobel laureate who led the way in discovering how specific genes cause the programmed death of cells, and Dr. David Botstein (2003), an innovator in the use of genetics to understand biological functions.

The Foundation’s Genetics Advisory Board, a panel of experts in the field, selects the annual winner of the prize. Current members are: Dr. David Botstein, Director, Lewis-Sigler Institute, Princeton University; Dr. Beverly S. Emanuel, Charles E.H. Upham Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Human Genetics and Molecular Biology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Dr. Uta Francke, Professor of Genetics, Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine, Stanford University; Dr. H. Robert Horvitz, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch, Professor of Biology, Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. Leena Peltonen-Palotie, Professor, Medical Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of Helsinki; and Dr. Huntington Willard, Director, Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy and Vice Chancellor, Genome Science, Duke University.

The Peter Gruber Foundation
The Peter Gruber Foundation was founded in 1993 and established a record of charitable giving principally in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where it is located. In recent years the Foundation has expanded its focus to a series of international awards recognizing discoveries and achievements that produce fundamental shifts in human knowledge and culture. In addition to the Genetics Prize, the Foundation presents awards in the fields of Cosmology, Neuroscience, Justice and Women’s Rights. Further information about the Peter Gruber Foundation and its awards is available from www.petergruberfoundation.org.

GENETICS NEWS - 2006 RECIPIENT: ELIZABETH BLACKBURN

GENETICS NEWS - 2005 RECIPIENT: ROBERT WATERSTON

GENETICS NEWS - 2004 RECIPIENT: MARY-CLAIRE KING

GENETICS NEWS - 2003 RECIPIENT: DAVID BOTSTEIN

GENETICS NEWS - 2002 RECIPIENT: ROBERT HORVITZ

GENETICS NEWS - 2001 RECIPIENT: RUDOLF JAENISCH

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