Mary-Claire King
Mary-Claire King discovered the BRCA1 gene (a mutation in this gene leads to a 70% risk of developing cancer, as opposed to 13% in the general population) in 1990 after 17 years of looking for a genetic link in breast cancer. She originally studied mathematics but went to Berkeley for grad school to study genetics. She dropped out briefly when the National Guard was sent in against student protestors of the Vietnam War and she spent a year doing consumer advocacy for Ralph Nader investigating effects of pesticides on farm workers. When she went back to Berkeley, she showed in her doctoral work that humans and chimpanzees are 99% genetically identical through comparative protein analysis. She is also known for her work identifying the genetic causes of hearing loss and schizophrenia as well as her human rights work using mitochondrial DNA and human leukocyte antigens to identify missing persons in many countries including Argentina, El Salvador, Chile, Guatemala, and many more.
