She never ran a gel or trained an electron microscope on a virus, but Mary Lasker (1901-1994) had a huge impact on biomedical research. The fundraiser and lobbyist is the latest subject in the U.S. National Library of Medicine's Profiles in Science series.

Lasker took illnesses personally--whether they were the frequent ear infections she suffered as a child growing up in Wisconsin or the cancer that killed her husband, Albert. "I am opposed to heart attacks and cancer and strokes the way I am opposed to sin," Lasker said. She got angry and used her connections and gift for persuasion to try to get even. One of her achievements was helping to boost the National Institutes of Health budget 150 fold in the years after World War II.

Volume 317, Number 5834, Issue of 06 July 2007