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. "About Us," African Ancestry, Inc., www.africanancestry.com (March 1, 2005). His published papers, most of them (as is typical in the hard sciences) done in collaboration with other investigators, bore lengthy titles like "High Incidence of Microsatellite Instability in Colorectal Cancer from African Americans." In February 2008 he appeared in part 4 of African American Lives 2. 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. 23 Feb. 2023 . As he was completing his doctoral degree at George Washington University in 1998, Kittles was hired as an assistant professor of microbiology at Washington's Howard University and was named director of the African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer (AAHPC) Study Network at the university's National Human Genome Center. His parentsDNA, however, revealed links to the Hausa people of northern Nigeria, the Ibo of eastern Nigeria, and the Mandinka of Senegal. The Global African Community. He also became codirector of the molecular-genetics unit at the universitys National Human Genome Center. [10], Kittles was one of the earliest geneticists to trace the ancestry of Africans through DNA testing. "I used to always wonder in school why everybody looks different," Kittles told Alice Thomas of the Columbus Dispatch. Though usually associated with the intellectual lineage that runs from Cheikh Anta Diop (192, Cayton, Horace 19031970 In October he watched an episode of CBSs 60 Minutes, in which a woman wept on-camera when African Ancestry traced her lineage to Sierra Leone. Can you list the top facts and stats about Rick Kittles? [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. If you want to measure environment, say that. As a sociological concept, race remains a powerful force, but as a scientific proposition, it is a muddle. Afrocentrism has a long and often misunderstood history. [http://medicine.uchicago.edu/faculty_profile/faculty_profile.asp?empl_id=9960]. "This finding emphasizes the importance of ancestry in studying genetics," said study author Rick Kittles, Associate Professor in Medicine. [http://saxakali.com/Saxakali Wikipedia, Race (classification of human beings) The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of categorizing humans into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of characteristics. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"0Ev87EeWO4E_u.VbiRlJhxTuEeIgHupvKirG_G1EQrI-86400-0"}; His work on tracing the genetic ancestry of African Americans has brought to focus many issues, new and old, which relate to race, ancestry, identity, and group membership. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Thats mainly because of the behavior of slaveholders during slavery, Kittles says. . Already, he had tried out his ancestry tests on a few subjects, among them his parents. Kittless own Y-chromosome test turned up a result in Germany. He locates closely related lineages for the remaining 15 percent. Call a family reunion and have everybody put in $10., Kittles takes the criticism seriously, but in stride. Rick Antonius Kittles (roen u Sylvaniji , Dordija , Sjedinjene Drave ) je ameriki biolog specijaliziran za ljudsku genetiku i vii potpredsjednik za istraivanje na Medicinskom fakultetu Morehouse . Total downloads of all papers by Rick Kittles. Kittles says DNA offers a way to reclaim identity. . Rick Antonius Kittles is an American biologist specializing in human genetics and a Senior Vice President for Research at the Morehouse School of Medicine. The African Perspective in India. Knowledge from human genetic research is increasingly challenging the notion that race and biology are inextricabl. Feb 25 2023. "The Finnish Population Bottlenecks: Exploiting the Evolutionary History of Genes for Population and Genetic Disease Studies." One siblings results hold true for the others, and parents who swab their cheeks save their children the trouble. Dr. Kittles' research has focused on understanding the complex issues. He was looking for prominent African Americans to be guinea pigs, and unbeknownst to him, I had been interested more than interested, obsessed with my own family tree since I was 9 years old. I knew that if you started to get genetic samples from African Americans, it would be sensitive data, Kittles says. As a second-year graduate student in biology at George Washington University, he began collecting data on mitochondrial DNA, the maternally inherited part of the genome, which passes unchanged from generation to generation. Kittles faced a public-relations problem of long standing in his new post, for the AAHPC Study Network was a government-funded project. He has published on genetic variation and prostate cancer genetics of African Americans. He started collaborating with researchers at clinics and hospitals across Africa, who sent him genetic data volunteered by indigenous patients. "There is very strong resistance in the African-American community to participate in government-sponsored research," Kittles pointed out to the Chicago Sun-Times. They know their ancestors were from Africa, but they cant get past South Carolina or Mississippi. For Sampson, this is especially true: adopted and raised by his maternal uncle, he met his mother only three times and knew nothing about his fathers family. 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. Since that first journey to Lunsar, he has made several trips back, as do many who trace their roots to Africa, and hes added his Temne name to his business card, just above the line that reads, Ordained by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sampsons congregation is starting an adoption program for Lunsars orphansIm always concerned about orphanages, he says, not least because I could have grown up in oneand this year he plans to bring over a few generators to power the villages schools. James Jacobs, who knew of a Louisiana ancestor called Jacko Congo, told the Houston Chronicle that "the feeling is hard to describe, like having a long-lost parent and you found them." So those whose results dont reveal the American Indian, or Zulu, or Mende, or Mandinka lineage that oral histories led them to expect may simply have those ancestors on a still-shrouded branch of the family tree. He took on a partner, Washington businesswoman Gina Paige, to handle the financial side of African Ancestry, taking the title of Scientific Director for himself. Kittles, Ricky Antonius (1998). Terms of Use, Jo S(usenbach) Kittinger (1955-) Biography - Writings, Sidelights - Personal, Addresses, Career, Member, Work in Progress, Rick Kittles - Concocted African Ancestry, Rick Kittles - Directed Prostate Cancer Study, Rick Kittles - Callers Jammed Howard Switchboard, Rick Kittles - Attracted Celebrity Customers. In 2000, Harvard University Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. sent his DNA to Rick Kittles, a geneticist at Howard University, to trace his ancestry.Dr. SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT: Dr. Kittles work at African Ancestry has ignited global interest and dialogue, as well as unprecedented focus on African ancestry tracing in U.S. and abroad. In the early 1990s he began his career as a teacher in several New York and Washington, D.C. area high schools. Keita M.D., D.Phil., (May 25, 1954) ne Jon Derryll Walker, is an African American biological anthropologist. His collection of 10,000 samples "to me sounds pretty good," University of Chicago professor Chung-I Wu told the Chicago Tribune (as quoted by the Knight Ridder Tribune News Service). From approximately 1997 until 1999, as a researcher with the New York African Burial Ground Project (NYABGP), a federally funded project in New York City, win which Howard University researchers, led by anthropologist Michael Blakey, exhumed the remains of 408 African Americans from an 18th-century graveyard; 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. African Ancestrys African DNA database remains the largest and most comprehensive ever collected, making its lineage matching the most reliable in the marketplace. Kittles, who joined Chicagos faculty in 2006, hardly imagined any scene like Sampsons Lunsar homecoming when he began constructing the DNA database that would become the foundation of African Ancestry. Three decades after Roots author Alex Haley followed family lore, slave-ship records, and a few snatches of inherited tribal dialect to Kunta Kinte, a Gambian warrior sold into slavery in 1767, African Americans are unearthing their ancestry in growing numbers. Addresses: Office Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology & Medical Genetics, 690C Tzagournis Medical Research Facility, 420 W. 12th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210. Born in Sylvania, Georgia, and raised near Long Island, New York, a great deal of his academic interest was sparked . Tory Kittles is an American actor, writer, and director who stars opposite Queen Latifah on CBS's hit series The Equalizer. From rough-etched bones, scientists constructed stories of hunger and backbreaking labor. Men inherit their mothersmitochondrial DNA, but only women can pass it on; thus, both genders can trace their maternal roots using mitochondrial DNA. He has previously held positions at Howard University (19982004), Ohio State University (20042006), the University of Chicago (20062010), the University of Illinois Chicago (20102014), the University of Arizona (20142017), and the City of Hope National Medical Center (20172022).[1][2][3][4][5][6]. Dr. Rick Kittles,former Director of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, investigates the genetics of complex diseases that disproportionately impact people of color. ." But women looking to discover the origins of their fathers fathers fathers must rely on a male relativea father, a brother, a paternal uncleto take the Y-chromosome test. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Career: Various New York and Washington, DC, area high schools, teacher, early 1990s; Howard University, Washington, DC, assistant professor and director of National Human Genome Center African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer Study Network, 1998-2004; African Burial Ground Project, New York City, researcher; African Ancestry, Inc., founding partner (with Gina Paige) and scientific director, 2002; Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, associate professor, 2004. To many of them, what Kittles offers isnt merely scientific information, its a missing fragment of identity. degree in biology from the Rochester Institute of Technology (1989), an M.S. Rick Kittles, Ph.D., is Professor and founding director of the Division of Health Equities within the Department of Population Sciences at the City of Hope (COH). "The first thing they say is 'Tuskegee,'" referring to the infamous 40-year United States Public Health Service study in which hundreds of black men were unknowingly denied proper treatment for syphilis infections. As he was completing his doctoral degree at George Washington University in 1998, Kittles was hired as an assistant professor of microbiology at Washington's Howard University and was 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. Be notified when an answer is posted. This project involved setting up national network of mostly African-American medical scientists who would enroll 100 families with at least four members who were afflicted with prostate cancer; blood samples were subjected to genetic research, with the intent of finding a genetic marker that might explain the high incidence of the disease among African-American men. He has previously held positions at Howard University , Ohio State University , the . He also investigated interactions between melanin and prescription drugs, and between melanin and illicit drugs such as cocaine. Afrocentricity redirects here. As he began to work toward realizing his ideas, Kittles encountered both excitement and controversy. Some surnames, like Smith or Jackson or Brown, are common. Pan Afric, Raymond A. Winbush It is most often used to, Pan-Africanism is an internationalist philosophy that is based on the idea that Africans and people of African descent share a common bond. Scientific observers questioned whether Kittles could generate useful results in view of the fact that DNA testing could illuminate only a small sliver of a person's ancestry, and questions were raised about the size of the African DNA database on which he planned to rely. Contemporary Black Biography. But that fraction of a percentage of DNA is more than what we had, Kittles says. *Kittles, Ricky Antonius (1998). Sometimes Ricky goes by various nicknames including Ricky A Kittles, Ricahrd Kittles, Richard Kittles, Richard A Kittles and Anthony Kittles. 2021 African Ancestry, Inc. All rights reserved. Dr. Kittles has published more than 240 research articles in addition to winning numerous awards and accolades. [9] On October 7, 2007, he was featured on the American TV newsmagazine 60 Minutes. He is currently Scientific Director 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 March 2003 . Within the Cite this article tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. 2014-02-22 23:03:14. Contemporary Black Biography. Dr. Kittles co-founded African Ancestry, Inc., a private company that provides DNA testing services for tracing African genetic lineages to genealogists and the general public around the world. UA researcher Rick Kittles is a national leader on health disparities and the role of genes and environment in disease. Ghana and Ivory Coast? Ebony selected the nation's top 100 African-American "power players . Boston was selected because its African-American population was relatively self-contained; many black Boston families could trace their roots to the American Revolution or even earlier. Sampson isnt alone. Your result is not based on a single data point, says Paige, noting that African Ancestry has performed some 12,000 tests to date, a figure she says translates into genealogical information for more than 50,000 people. But there the trail ended. Customers could choose to have either the paternal line (though the Y chromosome, the genetic marker responsible for the development of male characteristics) or the maternal line (through mitochondrial DNA) investigated; a discount was available for the pair. Rick holds a B.S. The path that led to the founding of African Ancestry was complicated and not without controversy, but Kittles found that his research often fed into the deep interest in African-American genealogy that had been awakened by the publication of Alex Haley's book Roots in the 1970s. Color?, Sampson now finds himself thinking less about race and more about ancestry. RICK KITTLES, PH.D. For African Americans, its hard to make that African connection, says Reverend Sampson. The two talked about science and history, and finding a sense of place. He is a four-time Pro Bowler and was a First-team All-Pro in 2019. He is also Associate Director of Health Equities of COH Comprehensive Cancer Center. As of this past October, more than 260,000 Americans had paid for genealogical genetic testing. September 2, 2007. As one of the only Black geneticists, Dr. Rick Kittles wanted to create a way for Black Americans to trace their roots back to Africa. This page was last edited on 8 February 2023, at 17:10. Kittles took on the role of scientific director. And I felt that I was probably the right person to do it, he says, noting that for many African Americans, the idea of scientific testing raises the specter of the Tuskegee experiments, begun in 1932, in which 400 poor, black Alabama sharecroppers were denied treatment for syphilis over the course of 40 years. He is also known for appearing in films and TV series like Malibu's Most Wanted (2003), Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005), Next (2007), Miracle at St. Anna (2008) among others. Inheritor both of wealth and of the sla, AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES, a field of academic and intellectual endeavorsvariously labeled Africana Studies, Afro-American Studies, Black Studies, Pa, The African diaspora is a term that refers to the dispersal of African peoples to form a distinct, transnational community. Johnson concurs, adding that DNA reveals the limitations of the very idea of race. In 2003 Kittles and his business partner, Dr. Gina Paige, started their company African Ancestry. Eleven million people watched as celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones, and Chris Tucker submitted their DNA for the companys analysis. S O Y Keita, R A Kittles, C D M Royal, G E Bonney, P Furbert-Harris, G M Dunston & C N Rotimi Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA S O Y Keita People are riveted by the possibility that they can find the tribe theyre descended from, says Harvard University African Americanstudies professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., but the Middle Passage prevented us from really finding out. Between the western shore of Africa and the eastern shore of America, names, identities, and religions vanished. Kittles had a few fierce critics within the African-American community as well; charging African Americans a fee to learn about their African origins was "like charging Holocaust victims a fee to confirm their relatives were in fact gassed," University of Maryland anthropologist Fatima Jackson told the on-line magazine Salon. [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. He was a nationally recognized investigator whose specialties encompassed such vital topics as prostate cancer and the role of genetics in disease. I cant wait to go to Bioko Island to have the sun in that part of the region on my body and know that Im home.. Rick Antonius Kittles (born in Sylvania, Georgia, United States) is an American biologist specializing in human genetics. Michelle, 1957-, Kittles, Rick, Lafontant-MANkarious, Jewel, 1922-1997, Lewis, . A lot of folk are really into family reunions, but it stops at grandmamma or great-grandmamma. Encyclopedia.com. 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). "Kittles, Rick But our history didnt start with slavery; we came through slavery. Get stories & special offers from Dr. Gina Paige and Guests. He has previously held positions at Howard University (19982004), Ohio State University (20042006), the University of Chicago (20062010), the University of Illinois Chicago (20102014), the University of Arizona (20142017), and the City of Hope National Medical Center (20172022). I mean, were talking about a very small part of your DNA, he says, less than 0.01 percent. The thinnest shred of genetic material0.1 percentaccounts for the entire spectrum of human variation; the other 99.9 percent of the genomes 3 billion nucleotides are identical from person to person. In 2003, Dr. Rick Kittles and Dr. Gina Paige collaborated on a groundbreaking way to help Black people reconnect to their roots beyond the limits of their current family trees. accuracy and confidence. ." Horace Cayton spent his lifetime attempting to reconcile his two halves. Kittles and his associates hoped that a project carried out mostly by African American researchers might break down these walls of mistrust.
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rick kittles biography