About the Department

The 2008 Duke MD-PhD Program Symposium proudly presents:

 

"ADVENTURES OF A MINSTREL GENETICIST"

Symposium Keynote Address

by Mary-Claire King, PhD

University of Washington

 

Thursday April 3, 2008

4:30-5:30pm

Searle Center Lecture Hall

 

- Discoverer of BRCA1 breast cancer susceptibility locus

- Assists the UN War Crimes Tribunal by using forensic genetics to identify victims of human rights abuses in Argentina, Croatia, and Rwanda

 

Full Symposium Schedule:

1:30-2:30 MD-PhD Student Poster Session

2:30-4:00 MD-PhD Student Platform Presentations

4:30-5:30 Keynote Address "Adventures of Minstrel Geneticist," Dr. Mary-Claire King

 

Open to the public. Come learn about and support the research of the students in the Duke Medical Scientist Training Program--we hope you’ll join us!

 

About the speaker:

The research of Dr. Mary-Claire King is a stunning example of how basic science research can reveal profound insights into who we are – elucidating both our collective history as a species, and our unique history as individuals.

 

Dr. King graduated from Carleton College in 1965 and earned her PhD in the lab of Allan Wilson, the father of molecular evolutionary biology. Her thesis work revealed that humans and chimpanzees were much more closely related than previously thought, with genetic sequences over 99% identical.

 

Continuing her work at UC-Berkeley, Dr. King showed in 1990 that a single locus on chromosome 17 conferred a markedly increased risk of breast cancer – the locus later identified as BRCA1.

 

While Dr. King continues to work on defining genes that confer susceptibility to diverse conditions from deafness to HIV, recently she has also focused intense effort on the use of forensic genetics to identify victims of human rights abuses and to reunite families torn apart by war.

 

For more information, please contact the Symposium Directors:

Yvonne Mowery (YMM3@duke.edu)

Benjamin Lampson (BLL4@duke.edu)