Which women should win?
Zuska never fails to make people think. And she made me wonder this and made me think that perhaps we could pass some names along to future Noble committees - you know, just in case they're having trouble coming up with names of female scientists. Maybe we can be some help.
I have a few suggestions below but I would really like to see more suggestions in the comments.
My suggestions for female Nobelists are:
1. Mary-Claire King
She could fit in two categories - The first category would be medicine for her discovery that a common disease, i.e. breast cancer, should have a genetic cause and of course for finding the BRCA1 gene. The second category would be the Nobel peace prize for her work in reuniting families. King's work is an important example of using science to advance a humanitarian cause. Her work with genetics helped return many kidnapped children to their grandparents and overturn a sad legacy.
2. Elizabeth Blackburn
Medicine or chemistry - for her work on telomerase
3. Nancy Wexler
Medicine or chemistry - for her work on Huntingtin.
4. Brenda Bass
Medicine or chemistry - for her work on RNA biology. As I recall, she published one of the first papers 1987, that laid the basis for RNAi technology.
References:
1. Bass BL, Weintraub H. A developmentally regulated activity that unwinds RNA duplexes.
Cell. 1987 Feb 27;48(4):607-13.