Rick Kittles, Ph.D.

Co-Director, Molecular Genetics, National Human Genome Center at Howard University.
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, Howard University.
Assistant Professor, (secondary appointment) Department of Surgery (Division of Urology) College of Medicine, Howard University.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Baltimore, MD.

Kittles received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from George Washington University. Dr. Kittles came to Howard University in 1998 as Project Director of the African American Hereditary Prostate Cancer Study Network (AAHPC). He helped to establish a national cooperative network of AAHPC Collaborative Recruitment Centers. The AAHPC study is a genetic study of hereditary prostate cancer in African Americans. Since coming to Howard University, Dr. Kittles has set-up a state-of-the-art human genome laboratory to conduct molecular genetic studies. As co-director of Molecular Genetics at the National Human Genome Center at Howard University he is also in charge of large-scale, high throughput genotyping and DNA sequencing. Dr. Kittles’ research exploits gene genealogy in studies of population history and disease associations. He has published on prostate cancer genetics of African Americans and genetic variation in the African Diaspora.

PUBLICATIONS
Kittles R. (1995) Nature, Origin, and Variation of Human Pigmentation. Journal of Black Studies. Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 36-61.

Keita SOY, and Kittles R. (1997) The Persistence of Racial Thinking and the Myth of Racial Divergence. American Anthropologist. Vol. 99, No. 3, pp. 534-544.

Kittles R, et al. (1998) Dual origins of Finns revealed by Y chromosome haplotype variation. American Journal of Human Genetics. Vol. 62, No. 5, pp. 1171-1179.

Kittles R, et al. (1999) Cladistic association analysis of Y chromosome effects on alcoholism and related personality traits. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vol. 96, No. 7, pp. 4204-4209.

Kittles R, et al. (1999) Autosomal, mitochondrial, and Y chromosome variation in Finland: evidence for a male-specific bottleneck. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Vol. 108, No. 4, pp. 381-399.

Kittles R, and Keita SOY. (1999) Interpreting African Genetic Diversity. African Archaeological Review. Vol. 16, No. 2, pp.87-91.

Schwartz JL, Gu X, Kittles RA, Baptiste A, Shklar G (2000) Experimental oral carcinoma of the tongue and buccal mucosa: possible biologic markers linked to cancers at two anatomic sites. Oral Oncol. 36(2):225-235.

E.J. Parra, R. Kittles, G. Argyropoulos, K. Hiester, C. Bonilla, N. Sylvester, D. Parrish-Gause, W.T. Garvey, M.I. Kamboh, L. Jin, R.E. Ferrell, W.S. Pollitzer, P. Mckeighe and M.D. Shriver. (2001) Ancestral proportions and admixture dynamics in geographically defined African Americans living in South Carolina. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Kittles R, et al. (2001) Extent of linkage disequilibrium between the Androgen Receptor gene CAG and GGC repeats in human populations: Implications for prostate cancer risk. Human Genetics. 109:253-261.

Kittles R, Panguluri R, Chen W, Massac A, Ahaghotu C, Jackson A, Ukoli F, Adams-Campbell L, Isaacs W, Dunston G. (2001) CYP17 promoter variant associated with prostate cancer aggressiveness in African Americans. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. 10:943-947.

Kittles R and Williams R. (2001) Genetics and Cancer: Challenges at the Millennium. Journal of Registry Management. 28(3):132-133.

Kittles R, and Adams-Campbell L. (2002) Race, Genetics and Cancer: Consequences of "Racializing" Disease. ONCOLOGY. 16(1): 113-118.

Pfaff C, Kittles R, and Shriver M. (2002) Adjusting for Population Structure in Admixed Populations. Genetic Epidemiology. 22:196-201.

Kittles R, et al. (2002) Association of CYP3A4 variant with prostate cancer in African Americans is due to population stratification. Human Genetics. 110:553-560.

Panguluri R, Chen WD, Kittles, R. (2002) SNP genotyping of candidate genes for complex disease using Pyrosequencing. American International Biotechnology Laboratory. 20(7): 30-34.

Bookman E, Taylor RE, Adams-Campbell L, Kittles R. (2002) DRD4 promoter haplotypes associated with Extraversion in African Americans. Molecular Psychiatry. 7:786-789.

Collins-Schramm H, Kittles, R, Operario D, Weber J, Criswell L, Cooper R, and Seldin M. (2002) Markers that discriminate between European and African Ancestry show limited variation within Africa. Human Genetics. 111:566-569.

M.D. Shriver, E.J. Parra, S. Dios, C. Bonilla, H. Norton, C. Siccard, C. Pfaff, C. Jones, G. N. Cameron, A. Baron, T. Jackson, G. Argyropoulos, L. Jin, P.M. McKeigue, Kittles R. (in press) Biogeographical ancestry and the study of human biology: Mapping skin pigmentation genes. Human Genetics

Ashtorab H, Smoot D, Rahmanian M, Kittles R, Vosganian G, Doura M, Nidhiry E, Naab T, Momen B, Shakhani S, Carethers J, and Giardiello F. (in press) High Incidence of Microsatellite Instability in colorectal cancer from African Americans. Clinical Cancer Research