Rick Kittles

Last updated
Kittles speaks at the National Human Genome Research Institute in 2013 Rick Kittles at National Human Genome Research Institute.jpg
Kittles speaks at the National Human Genome Research Institute in 2013

Rick Antonius Kittles (born in Sylvania, Georgia, United States) is an American biologist specializing in human genetics and a Senior Vice President for Research at the Morehouse School of Medicine. [1] He is of African-American ancestry, and achieved renown in the 1990s for his pioneering work in tracing the ancestry of African Americans via DNA testing.

Contents

He has previously held positions at Howard University (1998–2004), Ohio State University (2004–2006), the University of Chicago (2006–2010), the University of Illinois Chicago (2010–2014), the University of Arizona (2014–2017), and the City of Hope National Medical Center (2017–2022). [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Biography

Kittles was raised in Central Islip, New York. Rick holds a B.S. degree in biology from the Rochester Institute of Technology (1989), where he pledged Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and a Ph.D. in biology from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (1998).

In 1990 he began his career as a teacher in several New York and Washington, D.C. area high schools. From approximately 1995 until 1999, as a researcher with the New York African Burial Ground Project (NYABGP), a federally funded project in New York City, in which Howard University researchers, led by anthropologist Michael Blakey, exhumed the remains of 408 African Americans from an 18th-century graveyard; [7] Kittles gathered DNA samples from the remains and compared them with samples from a DNA database to determine from where in Africa the individuals buried in the graveyard had come.

Beginning in 1998, as he was completing his Ph.D. at George Washington University, Kittles was hired as an assistant professor of microbiology at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and also named director of the African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer (AAHPC) Study Network at the university's National Human Genome Center. Kittles also co-directed the molecular genetics unit of Howard University's National Human Genome Center. He served in these positions until 2004. Beginning in 2004, he served as an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology & Medical Genetics at the Tzagournis Medical Research Facility of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.[ citation needed ]

He is currently the leader of the Washington, D.C.-based African Ancestry Inc., a genetic testing service for determining individuals' African ancestry, which he co-founded with Gina Paige in February 2003. He also serves as an associate professor in the Department of Medicine and the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Illinois, Chicago. [8]

He was featured in the BBC Two films Motherland: A Genetic Journey and Motherland – Moving On (released in 2003 and 2004, respectively), as well as in part 4 of the 2006 PBS series African American Lives (hosted by Henry Louis Gates). [9] On October 7, 2007, he was featured on the American TV newsmagazine 60 Minutes . In February 2008 he appeared in part 4 of African American Lives 2 .

He has published on genetic variation and prostate cancer genetics of African Americans. In addition, he discovered, through a DNA analysis, he descends mainly of people of Dakar, Senegal, and Nigeria's Hausa people. [10]

Scientific contributions

Kittles was one of the earliest geneticists to trace the ancestry of Africans through DNA testing. This led, as mentioned in the biography section, him to co-found the company African Ancestry Inc., which set out to be the leading advocate for tracing the ancestry of individuals with African descent. [11]  Kittles is known for his work on prostate cancer but he devotes part of his time to study and research other diseases such as colon and breast cancer, sickle cell anemia, red blood cell immune response, and pulmonary hypertension. [12]  Kittles has been an advocate for studying prostate cancer among African Americans for much of his scientific career; his primary concern however, was to find out how genes and the environment increased the risk of prostate cancer. [13]

Kittles has performed a large amount of research, including publishing over 160 peer-reviewed articles, over his career with much of this work being devoted to issues such as genetic ancestry and health disparities among African Americans and other minority groups. [14] Kittles has also been a part of many cutting edge developments including the progress of genetic markers and how an individual's ancestry can be used to help identify risk of disease and health outcomes. [14] More recently, Kittles and his team have been conducting genetic sequencing trials to try and find variations in genes that affect a person's response to drugs. [12]

Publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetic testing</span> Medical test

Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or through biochemical analysis to measure specific protein output. In a medical setting, genetic testing can be used to diagnose or rule out suspected genetic disorders, predict risks for specific conditions, or gain information that can be used to customize medical treatments based on an individual's genetic makeup. Genetic testing can also be used to determine biological relatives, such as a child's biological parentage through DNA paternity testing, or be used to broadly predict an individual's ancestry. Genetic testing of plants and animals can be used for similar reasons as in humans, to gain information used for selective breeding, or for efforts to boost genetic diversity in endangered populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medical genetics</span> Medicine focused on hereditary disorders

Medical genetics is the branch of medicine that involves the diagnosis and management of hereditary disorders. Medical genetics differs from human genetics in that human genetics is a field of scientific research that may or may not apply to medicine, while medical genetics refers to the application of genetics to medical care. For example, research on the causes and inheritance of genetic disorders would be considered within both human genetics and medical genetics, while the diagnosis, management, and counselling people with genetic disorders would be considered part of medical genetics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancestry-informative marker</span>

In population genetics, an ancestry-informative marker (AIM) is a single-nucleotide polymorphism that exhibits substantially different frequencies between different populations. A set of many AIMs can be used to estimate the proportion of ancestry of an individual derived from each population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human genetic variation</span> Genetic diversity in human populations

Human genetic variation is the genetic differences in and among populations. There may be multiple variants of any given gene in the human population (alleles), a situation called polymorphism.

David Emil Reich is an American geneticist known for his research into the population genetics of ancient humans, including their migrations and the mixing of populations, discovered by analysis of genome-wide patterns of mutations. He is professor in the department of genetics at the Harvard Medical School, and an associate of the Broad Institute. Reich was highlighted as one of Nature's 10 for his contributions to science in 2015. He received the Dan David Prize in 2017, the NAS Award in Molecular Biology, the Wiley Prize, and the Darwin–Wallace Medal in 2019. In 2021 he was awarded the Massry Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary-Claire King</span> American geneticist

Mary-Claire King is an American geneticist. She was the first to show that breast cancer can be inherited due to mutations in the gene she called BRCA1. She studies human genetics and is particularly interested in genetic heterogeneity and complex traits. She studies the interaction of genetics and environmental influences and their effects on human conditions such as breast and ovarian cancer, inherited deafness, schizophrenia, HIV, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. She has been the American Cancer Society Professor of the Department of Genome Sciences and of Medical Genetics in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington since 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myriad Genetics</span> American biotechnology company

Myriad Genetics, Inc. is an American genetic testing and precision medicine company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Myriad employs a number of proprietary technologies that permit doctors and patients to understand the genetic basis of human disease and the role that genes play in the onset, progression and treatment of disease. This information is used to guide the development of new products that assess an individual's risk for developing disease later in life, identify a patient's likelihood of responding to a particular drug therapy, assess a patient's risk of disease progression and disease recurrence, and measure disease activity.

Race and health refers to how being identified with a specific race influences health. Race is a complex concept that has changed across chronological eras and depends on both self-identification and social recognition. In the study of race and health, scientists organize people in racial categories depending on different factors such as: phenotype, ancestry, social identity, genetic makeup and lived experience. "Race" and ethnicity often remain undifferentiated in health research.

Mary Styles Harris is an American biologist and geneticist, president of Harris & Associates in Atlanta, Georgia, and owner of BioTechnical Communications, which produced the television documentary "To My Sister...A Gift for Life."

James Edward Bowman Jr. was an American physician and specialist in pathology, hematology, and genetics. He was a professor of pathology and genetics at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. He published more than ninety works across the fields of human genetics; population genetics; and ethical, legal and public policy issues in human genetics. He received many awards, including the Chicago African American History Makers Award and recognition from the Hastings Center and Stanford’s Kaiser Family Foundation, and Howard University.

Dr. Paul R. Billings is a distinguished American doctor, lecturer, researcher, professor, and consultant on genetic information. His research interests include the impact of genomic data on society, the integration of genomics with diagnostics in health and medical care, and individualized genomic medicine. He is the author of over 250 publications and has appeared on talk shows such as The Oprah Winfrey Show and 60 Minutes. He is currently the CEO and Director of Biological Dynamics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark D. Shriver</span> American geneticist

Mark D. Shriver is an American population geneticist. He leads genetic research at the Pennsylvania State University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Offit</span> American geneticist

Kenneth Offit is an American cancer geneticist and oncologist. He is currently Chief of the Clinical Genetics Service and the Robert and Kate Niehaus Chair in Inherited Cancer Genomics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Offit is also a member of the Program in Cancer Biology and Genetics at the Sloan-Kettering Institute, Professor of Medicine and Healthcare Policy and Research at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a member of both the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute and the Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention working group of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nilanjan Chatterjee</span> Biostatistician

Nilanjan Chatterjee is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biostatistics and Genetic Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, with appointments in the Department of Biostatistics in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and in the Department of Oncology in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He was formerly the chief of the Biostatistics Branch of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics.

Stuart Holland Orkin is an American physician, stem cell biologist and researcher in pediatric hematology-oncology. He is the David G. Nathan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Orkin's research has focused on the genetic basis of blood disorders. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaine Ostrander</span> American geneticist

Elaine Ann Ostrander is an American geneticist at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. She holds a number of professional academic appointments, currently serving as Distinguished and Senior Investigator and head of the NHGRI Section of Comparative Genomics; and Chief of the Cancer Genetics and Comparative Genomics Branch. She is known for her research on prostate cancer susceptibility in humans and for conducting genetic investigations with the Canis familiaris —the domestic dog— model, which she has used to study disease susceptibility and frequency and other aspects of natural variation across mammals. In 2007, her laboratory showed that much of the variation in body size of domestic dogs is due to sequence changes in a single gene encoding a growth-promoting protein.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Rotimi</span> Nigerian geneticist

Charles Nohuoma Rotimi is the Scientific Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). He joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2008 as the inaugural Director of the Trans-NIH Center for Research in Genomics and Global Health and was also the chief of the NHGRI's Metabolic, Cardiovascular, and Inflammatory Disease Genomics Branch. He works to ensure that population genetics include genomes from African populations and founded the African Society of Human Genetics in 2003 and was elected its first president. Rotimi was instrumental in the launch of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) with the NIH and the Wellcome Trust. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Bailey-Wilson</span> American statistical geneticist

Joan Ellen Bailey-Wilson is an American statistical geneticist. She is a senior investigator and co-chief of the Computational and Statistical Genomic Branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

Jada Benn Torres is an American genetic anthropologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University. She serves as Director of the Laboratory of Genetic Anthropology and Biocultural Studies. Her research considers the genetic ancestry of African and Indigenous people

Alexander (Sasha) Gusev is a computational biologist and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

References

  1. 1 2 Bradfield, Jamille (26 July 2022). "Dr. Rick Kittles Joins MSM as Senior Vice President for Research". Morehouse School of Medicine. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  2. ↑ Gibson, Lydialyle (2008). "Long way home: Chicago geneticist Rick Kittles stirs controversy and hope with a DNA database designed to help African Americans unearth their roots". University of Chicago Magazine. 100 (3). Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  3. ↑ Hartigan, Jr., John (2010). What Can You Say? America's National Conversation on Race. Stanford University Press. p. 176. ISBN   978-0-8047-6336-3.
  4. ↑ "Rick Kittles - Race, Biomedical Research, and the Politics of Trust". YouTube. MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. 18 September 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  5. ↑ "Arizona Health Science Center Appoints Rick Kittles, PhD, Director of New Division of Population Genetics". The ASCO Post. American Society of Clinical Oncology. 15 September 2014. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  6. ↑ "Rick Kittles joins City of Hope as director of the Division of Health Equities". The Cancer Letter. 43 (32): 11. 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  7. ↑ Allen, Arthur (12 May 2000). "Flesh and blood and DNA". Salon. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011.
  8. ↑ "Dr. Rick Kittles". University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "African American Lives 2 | PBS". www.thirteen.org.
  10. ↑ "Dr. Rick Kittles Ancestry Reveal". The Africa Channel. Feb 2, 2012 – via YouTube.[ dead YouTube link ]
  11. ↑ "Gale - Product Login". galeapps.galegroup.com. Retrieved 2019-03-27.[ full citation needed ]
  12. 1 2 "Case Study: Rick Kittles". goldenhelix.com. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019.
  13. ↑ "Rick Kittles, PhD | College of Medicine - Tucson". medicine.arizona.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  14. 1 2 "Beyond Blood and Skin: The Global Production and Consequences of Race and Racisms: Rick Kittles". Research Guides. DeWitt Wallace Library. Archived from the original on 2019-03-27.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.