The VinFuture 2025 Special Prize for female scientists is named after Professor Mary-Claire King.

On the evening of December 5, the VinFuture 2025 Special Prize for female scientists was awarded to Professor Mary-Claire King for her successful discovery of the BRCA1 gene - related to breast and ovarian cancer.

Professor Mary-Claire King received the award on the evening of December 5.

Professor Mary-Claire King shared at the Award Ceremony: “I am very honored to receive the award, on behalf of my colleagues, I would like to sincerely thank VinFuture. I was a bit surprised to receive an award specifically for female scientists, because the discoveries of all scientists are the same.

Our achievements, experiments, successes are the same as other scientists. And we women are doing it, contributing to the world ," Professor Mary-Claire King shared.

Sharing specifically about her work, Professor Mary Claire King said there are two reasons she focuses on research on breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

First, breast and ovarian cancer are of great importance to women all over the world, including your relatives, friends, and sisters in your family.

The second reason is that in ancient Greece, we had researchers who recorded cases of families with many women suffering from breast cancer for many generations but could not explain the reason. That made scientists wonder if it was due to exposure to exogenous factors in the environment, lifestyle.

Professor Mary-Claire King has visited Vietnam four times.

“I found that explanation unreasonable, because in these families, the rate of women with breast cancer is unusually high. From that, I hypothesized that if it was not due to environmental factors, it could only be due to genetic factors. So I thought, if all other options are not possible, let's try genetic factors. That's why all my research for the past 50 years has revolved around that topic,” said Professor Mary Claire King.

As an expert who has spent more than half a century studying breast and ovarian cancer, Professor Mary Claire King reminds women around the world that everyone is at risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. These are two cancers that can develop for many different reasons. In the group of women she has directly studied, the cause of the disease comes from the field of mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, as well as their sister genes.

For women who are young, healthy, and have not developed any cancer, but have a sister, mother, or grandmother in the family with breast or ovarian cancer, I recommend genetic testing to see if there is a mutation in the BRCA1, BRCA2, or other sister genes.

The professor said that genetic testing and analysis are very popular in the world today, performed with high accuracy and quality. In Vietnam, this genetic analysis and testing is also performed with very good quality. Therefore, I also recommend that we should go for genetic screening.

Professor Mary Claire King has been to Vietnam four times. She has also supported anti-war protests in Vietnam since the 1970s. She shared that she was very impressed by the resilience of the Vietnamese people. That is also the reason why she loves Vietnam so much and returns to Vietnam many times.

Thu Huong

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/giai-dac-biet-vinfuture-2025-danh-cho-nha-khoa-hoc-nu-goi-ten-gs-mary-claire-king.html

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