Rick Kittles facts for kids
Rick Antonius Kittles is an American biologist who studies human genetics. He was born in Sylvania, Georgia. Today, he is a Senior Vice President for Research at the Morehouse School of Medicine.
Dr. Kittles is well-known for his important work in the 1990s. He helped many African-American people learn about their family history using DNA testing. This was a new and exciting way to explore ancestry.
He has worked at many universities and medical centers, including Howard University, Ohio State University, and the University of Chicago.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Rick Kittles grew up in Central Islip, New York. He studied biology at the Rochester Institute of Technology, earning his bachelor's degree in 1989. Later, he received his Ph.D. in biology from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1998.
Before becoming a famous scientist, Rick Kittles taught at high schools in New York and Washington, D.C., starting in 1990.
Discovering Ancestry Through DNA
From 1995 to 1999, Rick Kittles worked on a special project called the New York African Burial Ground Project. This project studied the remains of 408 African Americans from an 18th-century graveyard in New York City.
Dr. Kittles collected DNA samples from these remains. He then compared them to a database of DNA samples from people living today. This helped him figure out which parts of Africa these individuals originally came from. This work was very important for understanding the history of African Americans.
Career Highlights
In 1998, while finishing his Ph.D., Dr. Kittles became an assistant professor at Howard University. He also directed a study network focused on prostate cancer in African Americans. He worked at Howard University until 2004.
Later, he became an associate professor at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
In 2003, Dr. Kittles co-founded a company called African Ancestry Inc. with Gina Paige. This company helps people of African descent find out where their ancestors came from using genetic testing. He is still a leader at this company today.
Dr. Kittles has also appeared on TV shows like the BBC Two films Motherland: A Genetic Journey and Motherland – Moving On. He was also featured in the PBS series African American Lives and African American Lives 2, hosted by Henry Louis Gates. In 2007, he was on the TV newsmagazine 60 Minutes.
Through his own DNA analysis, Dr. Kittles discovered that his family mostly came from Dakar, Senegal, and the Hausa people of Nigeria.
Important Scientific Work
Rick Kittles was one of the first geneticists to use DNA testing to trace the ancestry of people of African descent. This groundbreaking work led him to create African Ancestry Inc., which became a leader in this field.
Dr. Kittles is also well-known for his research on prostate cancer. He spends a lot of his time studying how genes and the environment can increase the risk of this disease. He also researches other health issues like colon cancer, breast cancer, and sickle cell anemia.
He has written over 160 scientific articles that have been reviewed by other experts. Much of his work focuses on genetic ancestry and health disparities among African Americans and other minority groups.
Dr. Kittles has helped develop new ways to use genetic markers. These markers can help identify a person's risk of certain diseases based on their ancestry. More recently, he and his team have been doing genetic sequencing trials. They are looking for changes in genes that affect how a person responds to different medicines.
See also
- Jeffrey C. Long
