Her multiple contributions to the history of Genetics are so important and varied that one could almost think that Mary-Claire King (Chicago, USA, 1944) has lived several lives in one. Take note of her most outstanding achievements. Thanks to her, the first gene closely linked to breast cancer was discovered, which she herself named BRCA1, and its detection has prevented thousands of breast and ovarian tumors worldwide. She did this long before the human genome was deciphered, back in 1990. Twenty years earlier, King had already made another scientific breakthrough by demonstrating that humans and chimpanzees share 99% of the sequences that encode proteins in our DNA, changing the paradigm of evolutionary study. Moreover, between these two dates, the scientist designed a tool to help the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo identify children kidnapped during the Argentine dictatorship of Videla. Her work has made possible the reunification of 138 families.
Listening to the list of contributions, she smiles through her blue eyes and downplays her importance. "I used the tools I had in the most useful and interesting way I could," she says a few days before receiving the Princess of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research in Oviedo.
The first thing King wants to highlight is that her initial goal was not to become a geneticist. She entered the field from Mathematics, an area she had learned to love with her father, who would pose problems to her while they watched the Chicago Cubs play. She quickly realized that Genetics was what she wanted to pursue, although the beginnings were not easy, she warns. "I knew this was what interested me, but when you start in an experimental field, it can be challenging. And it's important to remember that in those days, everything had to be done by hand," she says, pronouncing the last two words in Spanish. "The truth is that my skills were terrible. Nothing worked in the lab. It was as if you showed someone a kitchen and without further instructions asked them to prepare a boeuf bourguignon. All my experiments failed."
The scientist was even on the verge of completely abandoning research, she recalls. "It's also important to remember that we are talking about 1968, and the world was in turmoil. Similar to what is happening now, the National Guard had been called in to enter the university," King continues.
At that time, the young student had joined the lawyer and political activist Ralph Nader, and after her experience in California, he offered her the opportunity to continue her work in Washington D.C. "But I spoke with who later became my mentor and was then my friend, Alan Wilson, who gave me great advice. He said, 'if you leave, you will do good work, but you will never control the agenda. But if you stay and finish your Ph.D., then you will have the opportunity to control the agenda, the plans, for yourself. And that's what makes the difference.' It was good advice. It took me some time to achieve it because my skills were really bad. But I finally made it," she emphasizes.
In that sense, King advises young people considering a career in science to find "something they like, something they enjoy," and to persevere. "You have to enjoy the process because milestones are rare. In my experience, they don't happen more than once every decade. But if you like what you do, you keep working every day, and that's the key. I have the feeling that after the pandemic, there is a tendency not to persevere, to jump from one thing to another. But giving up doesn't lead us anywhere. Those who persevere are the ones who eventually achieve success."
She herself recalls taking 17 years to demonstrate the existence of the first gene linked to cancer. "It took me some time [laughs]. Although it's important to remember that during that time, I was also very involved in the project in Argentina. Multitasking is very important [laughs again]. I enjoyed the process at all times and was convinced of its importance. I couldn't have done it if I thought it was trivial. I was sure that the strategy was right. Another thing I learned from my mentor is to be very, very critical of the work while it's in progress. Analyze everything to be completely sure when you publish it, when that project is going out into the world."
She pauses for a moment, lost in thought, and then recalls Wilson: "He died very young. At 50 years old due to leukemia. But scientists have a certain immortality because what we do lives on. He was also a student of Alan, the Swedish scientist Svante Pääbo [Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2022], his legacy continues.