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. Wiki User. Some people come to African Ancestry, Paige says, hoping to confirm oral histories about American Indians in the family, but the tests rarely bear them out. ", By the time he reached his teenage years, Kittles found his curiosity intensifying as his white classmates began to identify more strongly with European ethnic groups. In February 2008 he appeared in part 4 of "African American Lives 2". "I would say, 'Africa'" when other students asked him about his own roots, Kittles was quoted as saying in the Seattle Times. This Black-Owned Company Can Help You Trace Your African Lineage 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. 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. ", Brief BiographiesBiographies: Dan Jacobson Biography - Dan Jacobson comments: to Barbara Knutson (19592005) Biography - Personal, Copyright 2023 Web Solutions LLC. 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. Some surnames, like Smith or Jackson or Brown, are common. In 2003 the remains were reinterred, and this past October a monument was dedicated at the site. 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. [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. Contemporary Black Biography. Kittles also starred opposite Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies in the action-drama series, "Colony", and was seen in Dee Rees' HBO Emmy-winning film, "Bessie", with Queen Latifah. 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. For 85 percent of African Ancestrys clients, Kittles says, he finds an identical match to an ethnic group in his database, and he tells clients the present-day country or countries where that group resides. 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. "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. Historical records suggest that between 1640 and 1795 as many as 15,000 slaves were laid to rest in the New York African Burial Ground; after the cemetery closed, it was paved over as the burgeoning city expanded. Through DNA testing, he discovered he's a descendant of the Mende people of Sierra Leone. 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. Loop is the open research network that increases the discoverability and impact of researchers and their work. PIONEER: In 2003, Dr. Gina Paige co-founded African Ancestry, Inc. (AfricanAncestry.com) and in doing so, pioneered a new way of tracing African lineages using genetics, and a new marketplace for people of African descent looking to more accurately and reliably trace their roots. Keita M.D., D.Phil., (May 25, 1954) ne Jon Derryll Walker, is an African American biological anthropologist. To analyze a clients data, Kittles looks for genetic markers, short sequences of DNA whose physical locations are known and whose variations differ from one population to another. Customers, who were often able to put Kittles's results together with bits of family oral history to fill in blanks in their family trees, had strong emotional responses to what they learned from African Ancestry's tests. Recognize how race is still used in medicine, and "pros" and "cons" to using race as a social identifier. LEADING GENETICIST: Dr. Kittles is very active in the field of human genetics and genetic anthropology, particularly as it relates to complex disease and health disparities in African Americans. Then he adds, I know that if I wasnt who I was in that little village of Lunsar, they wouldnt have given me no name.. Al Sampsons DNA led him to Sierra Leone. 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. Rick then became a researcher and funded a project for Howard University researchers, in which they exhume remains of African Americans from an 18th-century graveyard. Encyclopedia.com. George Kittle - Wikipedia Rick Antonius Kittles ( born in Sylvania, Georgia, United States) is an American biologist specializing in human genetics. In addition to the MLA, Chicago, and APA styles, your school, university, publication, or institution may have its own requirements for citations. Add an answer. Its important to have a historical place of origin, he says, and Africa is a huge continentmuch larger than the U.S. Kittles offered his customers a glimpse into their specific African ancestries, pinpointing an actual African ethnic group to which one or two of the customer's ancestors had belonged. Defining "race" continues to be a nemesis. Geneticist Rick Kittles, a professor at Ohio State University, became one of the hottest young scientific researchers in the country in the early 2000s. MEDIA RESOURCE: Paige has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Breakfast Club, Hot 97-FM, Time Magazine, USA Today, 60 Minutes, NewsOne Now with Roland Martin, HuffPost Live with Marc Lamont Hill, The Joe Madison Show, Sister Circle Live, Essence Magazine, The New York Times, The Tom Joyner Morning Show, FOX Business News, Reuters, New York Times, Canal Media Company, Black Enterprise, Ebony, NPR, Metro Source Urban Radio, American Urban Radio Networks, The Grio.com and TheRoot.com among many others. 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. Johnson concurs, adding that DNA reveals the limitations of the very idea of race. Founded in 2003 by Dr. Rick Kittles and Gina Paige, African Ancestry is the world leader in tracing maternal and paternal lineages of He then helped. Horace Cayton spent his lifetime attempting to reconcile his two halves. Rick Kittles - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia Dr. Kittles' research has focused on understanding the complex issues. Washington, D.C.: George Washington University. In addition, he discovered, through of a DNA analysis, he descends mainly of people of Dakar, Senegal, and Nigeria's Hausa people. So when Rick Kittles, a young and ambitious geneticist at Howard University, proposed using DNA testing to pinpoint the exact region or tribe of their forebears, hundreds of African Americans . 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. The test was simple and painlessthe customer took a cell sample from the inside of the cheek with a swaband could be handled entirely by mail, with a guarantee of confidentiality. Her work is featured in PBS Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and African American Lives 1 & 2, The Africa Channel, NBCs Who Do You Think You Are?, CNNs Black in America series and SiriusXM where she created and served as co-host on African Ancestry Radio. [CDATA[ 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. South Africa? Construction workers accidentally unearthed the graveyard in September 1991 while bulldozing the foundation for a federal office tower, and by the following summer, archaeologists dug up more than 400 graves. When he was hired by Ohio State in 2004, the Columbus Dispatch reported that he would bring to the university more than $1 million in research grants in addition to his teaching expertise. 2532) . "Dr. Rick Kittles Joins MSM as Senior Vice President for Research", "Long way home: Chicago geneticist Rick Kittles stirs controversy and hope with a DNA database designed to help African Americans unearth their roots", "Rick Kittles - Race, Biomedical Research, and the Politics of Trust", "Arizona Health Science Center Appoints Rick Kittles, PhD, Director of New Division of Population Genetics", "Rick Kittles joins City of Hope as director of the Division of Health Equities", "Rick Kittles, PhD | College of Medicine - Tucson", "All Guides: Beyond Blood and Skin: The Global Production and Consequences of Race and Racisms: Rick Kittles", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rick_Kittles&oldid=1138230262, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences alumni, Articles with dead YouTube links from February 2022, Articles with incomplete citations from February 2021, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. The obstacles in his way were just as sizable as the potential. Racial disparities in prostate cancer, and how to help stop them. Kittles and his associates hoped that a project carried out mostly by African American researchers might break down these walls of mistrust. 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. Rick Kittles - Senior Vice President for Research - LinkedIn [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. Sometimes DNA companies fail to account for ethnic migrations or gene flow between populations, or the fact that a clients ancestor may have been a genetic outlier. Kittles took on the role of scientific director. Slippin' into whiteness: Melungeons and other 'almost white' groups 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. View Essay - BLS Concept Race.pdf from BLS 1003 at Baruch College, CUNY. Then she learned other companies traced it elsewhere, to Senegal and Ivory Coast. 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. With the industrys largest and most comprehensive database of over 30,000 indigenous African DNA samples, Washington Business Forward, August 2001. accuracy and confidence. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. [14] Kittles has also been a part of many cutting edge developments including the progress of genetic markers and how an individuals ancestry can be used to help identify risk of disease and health outcomes. When he was young he hoped to become a rap musician, but he was curious from the start about human origins and differences. //Rick Kittles, Co-Director of Molecular Genetics, African - Spoke Total downloads of all papers by Rick Kittles. You can go to any city in the country, and in the phone book youll find pages of Smiths. 23 Feb. 2023
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