Department of Medicine Faculty Profile

Rick Kittles
Section of Genetic Medicine
Associate Professor of Medicine

e-mail: rkittles@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu

Training:

Degree	Year	Institution	Area
BS	1989	Rochester Institute of Technology	Biology
MS	1991	State University of New York, Brockport	Biology
PhD	1998	George Washington University	Biology

Academic Interests:

Dr. Kittles’ research focus is to formally evaluate genetic mechanisms involved in complex diseases. His work entails understanding how genetic variation is structured across human populations and how that variation contributes to inter-individual variation in disease susceptibility and other phenotypes such as drug response and skin color.Currently his work explores sequence variation within candidate genes in well-characterized populations for prostate and breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and human pigmentation. His interests also include biological and socio-cultural issues related to “Race” and health disparities and the utility of admixture mapping for genes for common traits and disease in African Americans and Hispanic Americans.

Representative Publications:

Kittles RA, Baffoe-Bonnie A, Moses T, Robbins C, Ahaghotu C, Huusko P, Pettaway C, Vijayakumar S, Bennett J, Hoke G, Mason T, Weinrich S, Trent J, Collins F, Mousses S, Bailey-Wilson J, Furbert-Harris P, Dunston G,. Powell I, Carpten J. (2006) A common nonsense mutation in EphB2 is associated with prostate cancer risk in African American men with a positive family history. Journal of Medical Genetics. 43(6):507-11.
Chen H, Hernandez W, Shriver M, Ahaghotu C, Kittles RA. (2006) Association of ICAM gene cluster SNPs with prostate cancer in African Americans. Human Genetics. 120:69-76.
Bonilla C, Panguluri R , Taliaferro-Smith L, Argyropoulos G, Chen G, Adeyemo A, Amoah A, Owusu S, Acheampong J, Agyenim-Boateng K, Eghan B, Oli J, Okafor G , Abbiyesuku F, Johnson T, Rufus T, Fasanmade O, Chen Y, Collins F, Dunston G, Rotimi C, and Kittles RA. (2006) Agouti-related protein promoter variant associated with leanness and decreased risk for diabetes in West Africans. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 30(4):715-21.
Panguluri R, Long L, Chen W, Wang S, Coulibaly A, Jackson A, Weinrich S, Ahaghotu C, Isaacs W, and Kittles RA. (2004) COX-2 gene promoter haplotypes and prostate cancer risk. Carcinogenesis. 25(6):961-966.
Shriver M, and Kittles, RA. (2004) Genetic ancestry and the search for Personalized Genetic Histories. Nature Reviews Genetics. 5(8):611-618.