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Securing a grant for scientific research is, more often than not, long, long-winded and by no means an easy feat. Recent Lasker award winner and F1000 IAB member Mary-Claire King‘s journey towards getting the grant that led to her discovery of the BRCA1 gene was a little more eventful than most.

In a series of heart-rending and almost unbelievable events, including heartbreak, robbery and – somewhat unexpectedly – Joe DiMaggio doing some emergency babysitting at San Francisco international airport, King somehow managed to secure the grant that yesterday won her the 2014 Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science. Do watch her describe the story in her own words.

King was yesterday awarded the Lasker award for “bold, imaginative, and diverse contributions to medical science and human rights,” after she discovered the BRCA1 hereditary gene locus, that when mutated, causes breast cancer. King also initiated DNA strategies to reunite missing persons or their remains with their families, such as the genetic techniques used to identify the remains of victims of natural disasters and the attacks of September 11th. Mary-Claire King has used the Lasker spotlight to call for greatly widening the use of genetic screening for breast and ovarian cancer.

She calls for the screening of all American women aged 30 or over for cancerous mutations, a major departure from current guidelines, which discourage screening unless a cancer diagnosis exists or a woman has a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

Dr King said “… every woman in America of any race or ancestry be offered this opportunity when she’s in the midst of childbearing or beginning childbearing … You only need to be tested once, and the vast majority of women will not have a mutation and can go about their life. The actual cost is minimal. But women who do learn they have a mutation that’s comparable to Angelina Jolie’s and confers very high risk can … develop a prevention plan”.