Mary-Claire King Most likely to administer a test

Credit: Mary-Claire King

Mary-Claire King, a geneticist at the University of Washington in Seattle known for discovering the BRCA1 gene in 1990, made headlines after issuing a call for routine testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in all women 30 years of age and older (JAMA 312, 1091–1092, 2014 ). DNA testing is currently reserved for those with cancers associated with these genes or who are considered to be at high risk because of family history, but King's proposal would mean a major shift away from this practice. In the article, King and her coauthors said that adopting genetic testing as part of regular clinical practice will “save women's lives and provide a model for other public health programs in genomic medicine.” King also received a Lasker Foundation Award this year for her contributions to medical science.

Mahendra Rao Most likely to regenerate

Credit: Mahendra Rao

Mahendra Rao resigned as director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, on 28 March after serving in the position since August 2011. At the time of his resignation, Rao told Nature that he had expected at least five projects from the CRM to be awarded grants to help with the Center's mission of investigating stem cell–based therapies. But the NIH had approved only one project, and this lack of financial support prompted Rao's resignation. The organization is still transitioning from Rao's departure, with funds still only available for the one project. Rao is now vice president of regenerative medicine at the New York Stem Cell Foundation.

Darek Fidyka Most likely to inspire a walk

Credit: epa european pressphoto agency b.v. / Alamy

In October, 40-year-old Darek Fidyka, the first recipient of an experimental nasal cell transplant, was able to walk again after the therapy successfully restored nerve connections in his spinal cord. Fidyka was paralyzed from the chest down in 2010 when a stab wound hit his spinal cord, splitting nerve connections. Beginning in 2012, Fidyka was treated at the Wroclaw University Hospital in Wroclaw, Poland, where researchers grew a culture of specialized nasal cells and then transplanted them around the location of the injury. They then added nerve grafts from Fidyka's ankle to help the injured nerves in his spinal cord reconnect. Now, after almost two years of physical therapy, Fidyka can walk with the support of a walking frame.

Joep Lange and colleagues Most missed within the HIV research community

Credit: Associated Press

Joep Lange and six other members from the HIV research and advocacy community were among the 298 people killed aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 when it was shot down in Ukraine on 17 July. The researchers were en route to the annual meeting of the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. Lange served as president of the International AIDS Society from 2002 to 2004 and most famously advocated for the use of combination drug therapy to treat HIV. The others headed to the meeting included AIDS activists Pim de Kuijer and Martine de Schutter, health advocate Lucie van Mens, Glenn Raymond Thomas, a media officer with the World Health Organization, and Jacqueline van Tongeren, communications director for a global health agency.

Nancy Snyderman Most likely to land in a soup

Credit: Adam Nemser-PHOTOlink.net/PHOTOlink/Newscom

Ordering takeout, a seemingly innocuous activity, proved costly for Nancy Snyderman, a doctor and the chief medical correspondent for NBC. After cameraman Ashoka Mukpo tested positive for Ebola following a reporting trip to West Africa, Snyderman and her colleagues volunteered to quarantine themselves for 21 days. Snyderman violated this quarantine on 9 October when she was seen waiting on an order outside a restaurant known for its soups in Hopewell, New Jersey. New Jersey health department officials then placed her under a mandatory quarantine for the rest of the period, with 24-hour police surveillance to ensure that she complied. The quarantine ended on 22 October, but Snyderman had not yet returned to NBC when Nature Medicine went to press in early November.

Haruko Obokata Most debated image

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Haruku Obokata, a researcher with the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, shot to fame in January when two papers she co-authored described a simple method to create stem cells. The work, conducted in mouse cells, generated widespread excitement about the implications for stem cell therapy. But errors in the papers began to surface, and an internal investigation by RIKEN found that the papers contained several misrepresented and altered images. Obokata admitted to these mistakes in the papers but insists the results were real. She was charged with scientific misconduct in April, and the papers were retracted from Nature in July. Obokata, whose other research at RIKEN is suspended, is now being closely monitored as she works to replicate her initial findings.