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 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. 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. 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. 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. [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. 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. //. BLS 1003 The Concept of Race. 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. She went on to start Pik-A-Pak Care Packages as a Stanford University graduate, helping families stay connected with their children while away at school. 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. City of Hope's translational research and personalized treatment protocols. Its like your last name, he says. But there the trail ended. But 15 years ago, when he first embarked on his database research, he says, I was interested in exploring genetic variation in Africa, where DNA diversity is broader and richer than anywhere else on the globe. [9] On October 7, 2007, he was featured on the American TV newsmagazine 60 Minutes. 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. It is through his years of research on genetic variation and his passion for the movements of African people throughout the world that AfricanAncestry.com was conceived. Sociologist Simply select your manager software from the list below and click on download. In 2003 Kittles and his business partner, Dr. Gina Paige, started their company African Ancestry. Autosomal, Mitochondrial, and Y Chromosome DNAVariation in Finland: Evidence for a Male-Specic Bottleneck RICK A. KITTLES,1,2* ANDREW W. BERGEN,3 MARGRIT URBANEK,1 MATTI VIRKKUNEN,5 MARKKU LINNOILA,4 DAVID GOLDMAN,3 AND JEFFREY C. LONG1 1Section on Population Genetics and Linkage, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, It made news in London and Sydney. Paige travels the world helping people demystify their roots and inform on identities so that they may better understand who they are by knowing where theyre from. He then helped establish the National Human Genome Center at Howard University. Objective. Web www.africanancestry.com. When he was young he hoped to become a rap musician, but he was curious from the start about human origins and differences. [1] On je afroamerikog porijekla, a poznat je 1990-ih po svom pionirskom radu u praenju porijekla Afroamerikanaca putem DNK testiranja . In February 2008 he appeared in part 4 of African American Lives 2. He was a nationally recognized investigator whose specialties encompassed such vital topics as prostate cancer and the role of genetics in disease. But our history didnt start with slavery; we came through slavery. In fact, African Ancestry has always been a sideline; Kittless scholarly work investigates geneticsrole in diseases like prostate cancer and diabetes, which disproportionately strike 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. 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. Volume 51 : profiles from the international Black community Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. Many African-Americans can relate. ." 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 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. After the media attention on the genetics of the project started to erupt, Kittles says, many folks were like, If you can do that for the bones of dead people, you should be able to do it for me.. Most online reference entries and articles do not have page numbers. A native of Lawtey, Florida, Tory Kittles is an American actor best known for starring as Marcus Dante on the television series, The Equalizer. In the past six years, some two dozen DNA testing companies have sprung up, offering to help people of all ethnicities re-establish long-severed links to their past. Rick Kittles, PhD, received a BS in biology from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1989 and a PhD in biological sciences from George Washington University in 1998. to improve the cultural, emotional, physical, spiritual and economic wellbeing of people across the African Diaspora. Afrocentrism has a long and often misunderstood history. Rick Antonius Kittles was born in 1976(?) But he gravitated toward subjects with broad social importance, and his eventual scholarly specialties were all hot topics: prostate cancer and its underlying causes, the relationship between genetics and disease prevalence more generally, and the validity (or lack of validity) of the concept of race. He taught biology at the high school level in the New York and Washington areas for several years, winning admission to the graduate biology program at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. As a graduate student, Kittles did research on melanin, the pigment that darkens human skin and protects it from solar radiation; Africans and other equatorial peoples frequently exposed to the sun have higher levels of melanin than do humans of European descent. 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. Starting a company began to seem inevitable. Geneticist Rick Kittles, a professor at Ohio State University, became one of the hottest young scientific researchers in the country in the early 2000s. 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. Dr. [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. Rick Kittles, Ph.D. Scientific Director, African Ancestry, Inc. September 2, 2007. My seats been vacant. He also asked them for a Temne name. Seattle Times, May 30, 2000, p. A1; April 25, 2003, p. A7. Rick Kittles, PhD, received a BS in biology from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1989 and a PhD in biological sciences from George Washington University in 1998. He has previously held positions at Howard University , Ohio State University , the . Request Answer. These races were not conceived as being related with each other, but Wikipedia, African American Lives is a PBS television miniseries hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. focusing on African American genealogical research. His work has been featured on BBC, PBS, CNN, CBS 60 Minutes, Ebony, NPR and USA TODAY, as well as hundreds of local and trade media across the world. Kittles ran into trouble with the government funders who had underwritten the African Burial Ground research as he moved toward profit-making enterprises, and he parted ways with his former associate Michael Blakey in a disagreement over the new project's aims. Contact: Nichole Taylor,Taylor Communications Group If I go to Wisconsin and look in the phone book and see a Kittles, more than likely Im going to be related to that person. Similarly, common lineagesusually more ancient ones, from which others evolved and branched outwardrecur frequently in more than one population. 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. in Sylvania, GA; raised in Central Islip, NY. To many of them, what Kittles offers isnt merely scientific information, its a missing fragment of identity. Like many African Americans, we knew nothing about where in Africa our ancestors were from, he says. A lot of folk are really into family reunions, but it stops at grandmamma or great-grandmamma. //]]>. Ghana and Ivory Coast? Others are looking for an ancestor from a particular African tribe. Kittles launched African Ancestry in February 2003 with Paige, a Washington, D.C., entrepreneur who, as president, oversees the company's marketing and finances. The Global African Community. In his biomedical research, Kittles often confronts the puzzle of race; too many studies rely on imprecise thinking. He holds a B.S. In the age of DNA screening, centuries-old rumors about plantation owners siring children with their female slaves have become, he says, verifiable fact. Anthropologists pored over the caskets, finding signs of ancient African rituals in the toys and tools buried with the dead, the coins placed in their hands. Want this question answered? I knew that if you started to get genetic samples from African Americans, it would be sensitive data, Kittles says. Yet it was outside of the academic world that Kittles made headlines. Early years [ edit] He also investigated interactions between melanin and prescription drugs, and between melanin and illicit drugs such as cocaine. RESPECTED LUMINARY: Paige has worked with and revealed the roots of the world's leading icons and entities including Oprah Winfrey, John Legend, Chadwick Boseman, Spike Lee, Condoleezza Rice and The King Family. Thats when the database work began in earnest. Associate Professor, The University of Chicago, Department of Medicine Kittles received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from George Washington University. Dr. Kittles research interests explore DNA, family history, and disease. and its Licensors His company, African Ancestry, Inc., used his expertise in genetic testing to put African Americans, from celebrities to ordinary genealogy buffs, in touch with their roots in a way that Americans of European descent took for granted but that a displaced and enslaved people had mostly only dreamed of. It was seasonably hot85 degrees or soand the streets were muddy. [1][2][3][4][5][6]. . Richmond Times-Dispatch, January 31, 1994, p. C1. Controversy continued to dog himan anonymous letter was submitted to Ohio State's search committee, accusing him of blurring scientific and for-profit workbut it was his strong record as a prostate cancer researcher, not his work with African Ancestry, that interested his new employer. This page was last edited on 8 February 2023, at 17:10. There was so much variation, and I realized we could tell something about maternal ancestry by looking at this data, he says. Previous to Ricky's current city of Pasadena, CA, Ricky Kittles lived in Tucson AZ. He grew up in Central Islip, New York. Paige has served as speaker, presenter and/or partner to McDonalds, Capital One, The Walt Disney Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, Wells Fargo, The Wall Street Health Forum, New York Times Travel Show, United Healthcare and dozens of community organizations and faith-based entities. In 1997 he joined a research team examining remains from a colonial-era black cemetery that once occupied six acres of lower Manhattan. When you look at our family history, what gets reinforced is that we were enslaved, he says. . 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. By that time, Kittles had been hired as an associate professor at the Ohio State University medical school, in the department of molecular virology, immunology, and medical genetics. Following public outcry over the federal governments haphazard excavationand some dismay that the graves had been disturbed at allthe remains were turned over to Howard researchers for more systematic examination. If you look at the data, what were doing is actually deconstructing race, Kittles says. As African-Americans, our connection and contact with our family members vary from tight nuclear families to large, well-kept branches and . 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. One siblings results hold true for the others, and parents who swab their cheeks save their children the trouble. Call a family reunion and have everybody put in $10., Kittles takes the criticism seriously, but in stride. PIONEERING RESEARCHER: Dr. Rick Kittles is Co-founder and Scientific Director of African Ancestry, Inc. Between 1991 and 2003, the New York Times covered the story more than 100 times. [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. From rough-etched bones, scientists constructed stories of hunger and backbreaking labor. Scoops about Morehouse College . Kittless job was to isolate DNA from the skeletons and determine whether their origins were African, American Indian, or European. That variation is located within a gene that plays a role in DNA repair, and a malfunction in that process could contribute to cancer development. ntaylor@africanancestry.com. 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. See also Other Works | Publicity Listings | Official Sites View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro As a Wikipedia, Archaeogenetics of the Near East The archaeogenetics of the Near East involves the study of aDNA or ancient DNA, identifying haplogroups and haplotypes of ancient skeletal remains from both YDNA and mtDNA for populations of the Ancient Near East (the modern Middle East, i.e. Wikipedia, Sylvania, Georgia Infobox Settlement official name = Sylvania, Georgia other name = native name = nickname = settlement type = City motto = imagesize = image caption = flag size = image seal size = image shield = shield size = image blank emblem = blank emblem Wikipedia, Khoisan Infobox Ethnic group group=Khoisan poptime= popplace=Southern Africa rels=Animist, Muslim [http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2006 06/01/02.shtml] langs=Khoisan languages related=perhaps SandaweKhoisan (increasingly commonly spelled Khoesan Wikipedia, Afrocentrism For the study of African culture and history, see African studies. Dr. Rick Kittles is a geneticist and director of the division of health equities at City of Hope, a private hospital, graduate medical school and research center in Duarte, California. Rick Kittles Biography It looks like we don't have any Biography for Rick Kittles yet. Nobody mentions that. Many consumers do not realize, the authors wrote, that the tests are probabilistic and can reach incorrect conclusions., Others criticize the expense. Kittles received a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from George Washington University. ENTREPRENEURIAL DNA: From a lineage of entrepreneurs, Paige launched her first business at age 8, with a magazine purposed to raise money for an amusement park visit. dont lead to Africa at all, but to Europe. Kittles's tests also confirmed what researchers had long suspected; around 30 percent of African Americans had European ancestors, primarily due to the rape of slave women by white slaveholders. Men inherit their mothersmitochondrial DNA, but only women can pass it on; thus, both genders can trace their maternal roots using mitochondrial DNA.