Mary-Claire King is an American human geneticist. She is a professor at the University of Washington, where she studies the genetics and interaction of genetics and environmental influences on human conditions such as HIV, lupus, inherited deafness, and also breast and ovarian cancer. King is known for three major accomplishments: identifying breast cancer genes; demonstrating that humans and chimpanzees are 99% genetically identical; and applying genomic sequencing to identify victims of human rights abuses. In Argentina, for example, in 1984 she began working with Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo in identifying children who had been stolen from their families and adopted illegally under the military dictatorship during the Dirty War.
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