Dr. Mary-Claire King Recognized with the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science
Yesterday the 2014 Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation awards were announced and Dr. Mary-Claire King was recognized with the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science.
Dr. King is noted for her discovery of the BRCA1 gene. When the BRCA1 gene mutates it causes increased vulnerability to breast cancer. “Dr. King’s work over the past several decades has largely laid the foundation for many of the advances we have today in prevention and care for persons with an inherited risk of cancer due to the BRCA gene,” said Dr. Beth Karlan, director of the Cedars-Sinai Women’s Cancer Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute. Dr. Karlan, who counts Dr. King among her personal and professional role models, added, “Thanks to Dr. King’s groundbreaking achievement in genetics, women today can learn if they carry a genetic mutation, and with their physician develop a prevention plan that is right for them and their family.”
The Lasker Awards are often called the “American Nobels” in medical science. Since 1942, 86 Lasker laureates have gone on to receive Nobel Prizes in medicine and medical research.