Overview of A trailblazing geneticist reflects on her life and work
In this Science Friday interview, geneticist Mary-Claire King reflects on the major discoveries that shaped her career, including the identification of BRCA1 as the first gene linked to a hereditary form of a common cancer. She also discusses her earlier work showing how close humans and chimpanzees are at the protein-coding level, her role in using genetics to reunite families separated by the Argentinian military dictatorship, and the values that have guided her work: persistence, intuition, rigor, teaching, and social responsibility.
Key Scientific Contributions
BRCA1 and inherited cancer risk
- King and her lab were the first to identify BRCA1 in 1990.
- The discovery showed that some cancers, especially breast and ovarian cancer, can have a strong inherited genetic component.
- She argues that genetic testing should be broadly offered, ideally to all women around age 30, not just those with a known family history.
Human-chimpanzee genetic similarity
- During her PhD work, King found that humans and chimpanzees share about 99% of protein-coding DNA.
- This helped shift thinking about evolution:
- big differences between species may come less from changes in protein sequences
- and more from regulatory changes — when, where, and how genes are expressed
Genetic identification in human rights work
- King also applied genetics to identify children stolen or born in captivity during Argentina’s dictatorship.
- This work helped reunite grandchildren with their families and became a landmark example of science serving human rights.
Themes and Lessons from King’s Career
1. Stick with hard problems
- She emphasizes that failure is part of science.
- Her advice: don’t leave a project just because early experiments fail.
- Success often comes to those who stay with difficult questions long enough to solve them.
2. Intuition matters
- King credits intuition as essential in scientific discovery.
- She warns that modern team science can sometimes reduce opportunities for individual intuition and ownership of big ideas.
3. Evidence must be defended
- She learned to trust strong evidence even when it contradicts prevailing wisdom.
- Her experience in evolutionary biology and cancer research showed that unpopular ideas can be right if the data are solid.
4. Friendship and mentorship matter
- She repeatedly stresses the importance of a “posse” — friends, mentors, and colleagues who support you through discouragement.
- She also values criticism, saying that strong critique is a form of respect.
5. Science should be useful
- King sees science as serving two purposes:
- satisfying intellectual curiosity
- being useful to society
- Her career embodies both, from basic evolutionary biology to cancer genetics and human rights.
Reflections on Science, Politics, and Responsibility
- King argues that scientists are never separate from the political world.
- She believes researchers should use their expertise and credibility to engage with societal problems when needed.
- Her work in Argentina convinced her that:
- the most important questions often come from people on the front lines
- the most moral projects require the most rigorous science
- and no question is too big to ask
Current Views and Future Directions
What she’d pursue now
- If she were starting today, King says she would likely work on:
- gene therapy
- or the genetic basis of severe mental disorders
- She is especially interested in combining family studies with modern lab methods like iPSC-derived neurons to study damaging mutations.
On genetic testing today
- She strongly advocates for broader access to genetic testing for hereditary breast/ovarian cancer genes.
- Since many inherited mutations are passed through unaffected fathers, family history alone misses many cases.
On the state of science funding
- King notes that science funding has become unstable and unpredictable.
- She describes the current environment as a “roller coaster” affecting research at every level.
Notable Takeaways
- Science is puzzle-solving, and genetics is one of the most powerful puzzle-solving tools.
- Major discoveries often come from simple, rigorous methods applied patiently.
- Social context matters: gender, politics, institutions, and history all shape what science gets done.
- The best science is both intellectually fearless and ethically grounded.
Memorable Ideas from the Interview
- “If everybody whose experiments didn’t work left science, there would be no one left.”
- “You need a posse.”
- “The most righteous projects demand the most rigorous science.”
- “No questions too big to ask.”