Mary-Claire King receives Pro Bono Humanum Award

Dr. Mary-Claire King, professor of medicine (Medical Genetics) and genome sciences, was recently presented with the 2015 Pro Bono Humanum Award by the Galien Foundation. The award recognizes ground-breaking efforts in improving human health.

Dr. King is the first woman recipient of the award.

She was selected in recognition of her work in transforming the application of human genetics to medicine through identification of the first gene, BRCA1, responsible for inherited susceptibility to breast cancer. She also demonstrated that the genomes of humans and chimpanzees are 99% identical, and pioneered the application of genetic sequencing in forensics to identify victims of human rights abuse.