Mary-Claire King, Princess Award of Asturias de Science for her findings in most cancers genetics | Science | EUROtoday

The American biologist Marie-Claire King, born in Chicago 79 years in the past, has gained the Princess of Asturias Award for scientific and technical analysis for her important contributions in fields comparable to human evolution, the genetics of most cancers, and the usage of DNA to defend the victims of dictatorships. His findings have contributed to saving “millions of lives,” mentioned the jury.

In the 90s of the final century, King recognized and appointed the gen Krca1the primary recognized genetic issue that multiplies the chance of breast most cancers. His work and that of different researchers ended up figuring out the gene BRCA2associated to breast and ovary tumors. King’s discovering was important to develop the present strategies of surveillance, analysis and remedy of most cancers based mostly on the genetics of every affected person.

King was additionally key within the identification of stolen youngsters in the course of the Argentine dictatorship (1976-1983) and reunification with their households. The researcher developed a method to research the mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited from moms to youngsters, which permits demonstrating who’re the grandparents of kids who have been separated from their dad and mom, in lots of instances killed by the Military Board. The method, baptized as “grandfather index,” helped reunify greater than 100 households. The scientist additionally used the DNA to call nameless murdered buried in widespread graves, and contributed to creating the nationwide genetic knowledge financial institution of the nation to proceed figuring out victims, an exercise now threatened by the federal government of the present Argentine president, Javier Milei.

“Science is neutral, it can be used for good or for worse, and this is a paradigmatic example of the power to help fair causes for human rights,” King mentioned in 2023 throughout a go to to Argentina, wherein she was honored by her work.

In 2017, the geneticist confessed in a radio monologue the issue of being scientific, lady and single mom. In the identical week of 1981, her husband deserted her for a pupil, and thieves devalued her home, but additionally achieved state assist that might result in three many years later within the discovery of the genetic elements of breast most cancers.

“If there is a woman who represents everything in science, it is her,” confesses Tomás Marqués-Bonet, an evolutionary biologist at Pompeu Fabra University, in Barcelona. Marqués-Bonet was a doctoral pupil when he met and regarded friendship with King in 2007 on the University of Washington, the place the American continues to direct her analysis group. “King belongs to a generation of scientists who have had to work twice to reach the top, and has been one of the first defenders of equal opportunities in this field,” says the researcher Icrea.

“The discovery of the gene Krca1 It was a milestone on which many other things have been built, ”emphasizes César Rodríguez, president of the Spanish Society of Oncology. King’s discovery showed that there are hereditary breast cancers that affect whole families, including men. Rodríguez points out, no analysis of Krca1 o BRCA2but of a whole battery of genes that increase the risk of several tumors. There are also specific treatments known as PLP inhibitors that work only in patients with one of these mutations, and who attack breast, ovary and prostate tumors, it stands out.

King came to university with the idea of ​​studying mathematics and statistics, but on the advice of the evolutionary biologist Allan Wilson, who was about to retire, he pointed to a genetic class, only “for enjoyable.” That changed the course of his career forever, King explained in an interview in 2014 after receiving the Lasker-Koshland Medical Research Award-the American Nobel Prize-for all his scientific career.

In 1975, King demonstrated with Wilson that humans and chimpanzees share 99% of their genes. This means that the difference between both species is in the differential regulation of that shared genetics, and specifically in specific mutations that can be identified.

Mental illnesses are “the final nice unknown of genetics,” according to King. His team has identified genes that increase the risk of schizophrenia. He has partially done it thanks to the analysis of people whose mothers suffered the great famine of Holland between 1944 and 1945, and the great famine of China after the great leap forward promoted by the communist dictator Mao Zedong (1958-1962). The incidence of schizophrenia in this population is twice as normal. King has identified genetic mutations that arise spontaneously during embryonic development, affect the growth of the brain, and end up producing the disease after 20 years or more.

“The greatest problem in each new discovery is to ask questions that make sense for each the scientific neighborhood and for society usually,” King explained by accepting Lasker. “In that effort, I guide me for three principles that Zena Stein [epidemióloga sudafricana] He taught me almost 40 years ago: the most important questions are those who are in the first line. The fairer projects require the most rigorous science. No question is too big to be formulated, ”he added.

King’s candidacy has been proposed by Peter Greenberg, winner of the Princess of Asturias of Scientific and Technical Research in 2023, with the support of Gene Robinson, director of the Carl R. WOEse Genomic Bilogy Institute of the University of Illinois, in the United States. The jury has decided to grant the King prize unanimously.

In last year’s edition, the winners were the five scientists who have revolutionized the treatment of obesity. The jury of the Princess of Asturias recognized the work of the Canadian Daniel J. Drucker, the Danish Jens Juul Holst and the Americans Jeffrey M. Friedman, Joel F. Habener and Svetlana Mojsov, who has culminated in several drugs to combat diabetes and obesity, such as Ozempic, an injectable medication whose sales are generating billions of euros each year. The award repaired the injustice that had been committed so far with Mojsov, which had always been left out of the awards for this achievement, and that in an interview with El País he said: “I have no idea in the event that they erased me from the historical past of Ozempic for being a girl.”

The Princess of Asturias award is endowed with 50,000 euros and a sculpture by Joan Miró. The deliberations within the scientific class started this Wednesday in Oviedo, with a jury of 17 members chaired by physicist Pedro Miguel Echenique, which appeared the biologist Cristina Garmendia, the arithmetic Pilgrim Quintela, the geneticist Ginés Morata and the paleoanthropologist Juan Luis Arsuaga. On this event, a complete of 59 nominations of 23 nationalities opted to the award.