Instructions Scientist Spotlight: Dr. Rick Kittles Dr. Rick Kittles is the founding director of the Division of Health Equities at City of Hope National Medical Cancer Center. He was initially a high-school biology teacher before deciding to get his PhD. Currently, he is a scientist who studies disease risks, particularly how race, genetic ancestry, behavioral factors, and genetics interact with each other to cause cancer.
BILD 1, UCSD Melinda Owens, Instructor
Updated 12-20-21
BILD 1: The Cell Biologist Journal #15
Instructions
Scientist Spotlight: Dr. Rick Kittles
Dr. Rick Kittles is the founding director of the Division of Health Equities at City of Hope National Medical Cancer Center. He was initially a high-school biology teacher before deciding to get his PhD. Currently, he is a scientist who studies disease risks, particularly how race, genetic ancestry, behavioral factors, and genetics interact with each other to cause cancer. He is particularly interested in researching health disparities, or why certain diseases are more common in certain populations. His interest in disparities began when he was in graduate school and his grandfather died of prostate cancer. He was shocked to
learn that prostate cancer is 1.6 times as common in African-Americans as in other populations. Dr. Kittles is also a co-founder of African Ancestry, the first company that specifically served people with African ancestry to trace their genetic roots to specific groups within Africa. His family, being descended from enslaved people, had no records of where they came from before the United States, and he realized that it would be very meaningful for himself and many other people to be able to uncover their roots. 1) Please read about Dr. Kittle’s motivations and his science in this short article written by
the City of Hope: Bonar, S. “Rick Kittles, Ph.D.: On a Mission to Eliminate Health Inequities.” https://www.cityofhope.org/breakthroughs/rick-kittles-is-on-a-mission-to-eliminate-health-inequities
2) High blood pressure (hypertension) is a big problem that can lead to many negative consequences such as heart failure and stroke. In the United States, African Americans have higher rates of high blood pressure compared to European Americans, and blood pressure medication is less likely to work in African Americans to lower their blood pressure to an acceptable range. Some people have hypothesized that these differences may be due to different genetics between African and European Americans. Please read the Introduction and the first paragraph of the Discussion of Dr. Kittle’s paper Van Tassell et al. “Association of West African ancestry and blood pressure control among African Americans taking antihypertensive medication in the Jackson Heart Study” J. Clin. Hypertens. 2020 Feb
https://www.cityofhope.org/breakthroughs/rick-kittles-is-on-a-mission-to-eliminate-health-inequities
BILD 1, UCSD Melinda Owens, Instructor
Updated 12-20-21
12. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jch.13824 Focus on the big picture and try not to worry about individual vocabulary.
To better understand this article, here are some resources: – On the relationship between “race,” ancestry, and health: Dr. Kittle’s TEDx talk “The
biology of race in the absence of biological races”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAWrwexw-To
– On how genes and the environment can interact in general: Khan Academy, Gene Environment Interaction: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/heredity/environmental-effects-on-phenotype/v/gene-environment-interaction
After reviewing these articles and doing your own research and thinking, write a 200 word or more reflection with your responses to what you read. Please discuss these questions:
1. What was most surprising, interesting, or confusing about the articles? What new questions do you have after reviewing these articles?
2. In this article, the researchers rule out a particular cause for why African Americans on blood pressure medication more frequently have high blood pressure than European Americans. What is another hypothesis (from the article or elsewhere) about what might cause this difference?
3. What do these articles tell you about the types of people that do science?
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jch.13824
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/ap-biology/heredity/environmental-effects-on-phenotype/v/gene-environment-interaction
BILD 1: The Cell
Biologist Journal #15
Instructions
1) Please read about Dr. Kittle’s motivations and his science in this short article written by the City of Hope: Bonar, S. “Rick Kittles, Ph.D.: On a Mission to Eliminate Health Inequities.”
https://www.cityofhope.org/breakthroughs/rick-kittles-is-on-a-mission-to-eliminate-health-inequities
2) High blood pressure (hypertension) is a big problem that can lead to many negative consequences such as heart failure and stroke. In the United States, African Americans have higher rates of high blood pressure compared to European Americans, and b…
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