2015 Leaders in Health Care Awards: Achievement in Health Care Research

WINNER

Mary-Claire King

Professor of Medicine and Genome Sciences, University of Washington

Geneticist Mary-Claire King is a distinguished researcher and professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. A pioneer and world leader in cancer genetics and the application of genetics to human rights abuses, King received the 2014 Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award for her contributions to medical science and human rights. Lasker Awards often signal future recognition by the Nobel Prize committee.

King says going to work in her UW lab is like opening up a gift box from nature every day. Areas of interest in her lab include inherited predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer, inherited hearing loss, and genetic influences on schizophrenia and other major mental illnesses.

With technology moving fast and [research] advances coming quickly, the work is exciting and enormous fun, King says.

In 1990, Kings early work demonstrated the existence of hereditary susceptibility to breast cancer through the discovery of inherited mutations in a gene she named BRCA1. About 12 percent of women in the general population get breast cancer. By contrast, 80 percent of women who inherit an abnormality in BRCA1 develop breast or ovarian cancer. King also developed DNA-based analysis to help families prove genetic relationships and find the lost children of Argentina who had been kidnapped as infants by that nations military regime of the late 1970s and early 80s.

SILVER AWARD

David Rawlings, M.D.

Director, Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies, Seattle Childrens Research Institute

Millions of children develop life-threatening infections because their immune systems fail to protect against invading viruses or bacteria. At Seattle Childrens Research Institute, Dr. David Rawlings is working on new ways to understand, treat and cure such conditions.

Rawlings research focuses on finding ways to diagnose, understand and cure pediatric immune diseases caused by either underactive or overactive immune system function. He has pioneered studies leading to identification and improved understanding of genetic immune diseases, and development of novel therapies. Most recently, his work has supported development of new gene replacement and gene repair techniques that will affect a broad array of human immune diseases.

SILVER AWARD

Matthias von Herrath, M.D.

Director, Novo Nordisk Type 1 Diabetes R&D Center, Seattle

When Dr. Matthias von Herrath joined Novo Nordisks Seattle lab in 2012, he was described as being among the top researchers in the world for his key advances in Type 1 diabetes treatment.

Von Herrath remains the driving force at Novo Nordisks Seattle unit, which combines under one umbrella basic research with early proof-of-concept trials. Researchers there are pursuing a transitional approach to finding new antigen-based immunological and vaccine treatment advances.
Von Herrath and his team are studying why the bodys immune system sometimes attacks its own cells. Additionally, researchers are looking at how viral infections play a role in the development of Type 1 diabetes.