President of product development, Genentech (DNA)
Age: 49
She may not quite be curing cancer, but she is treating it. Having battled cancer in Kentucky and AIDS in Uganda as a physician, Desmond-Hellmann keeps research at the biotech pioneer focused on the deadliest diseases. Her latest success: A treatment for one kind of macular degeneration, an age-related disease that can cause blindness.Age: 49
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