Professor Mary-Claire King Wins a $250,000 Lasker Award

Mary-Claire King, professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, has been selected to receive the 2014 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation for her contributions to medical science and human rights. Dr. King will be honored at a ceremony in New York City on September 19. The Lasker Awards include a $250,000 honorarium.

Dr. King was the first scientist to discover that women with a certain gene were more likely to develop breast cancer. She also developed DNA-based analysis that has been used to identify human remains and to reunite missing children with their families.

Dr. King holds a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley.