
Anne E. Kwitek, PhD
Professor, Physiology & Medicine
Locations
- Physiology
Contact Information
Education
PhD, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics, University of Iowa
Biography
Dr. Anne Kwitek is a tenured Professor in the Department of Physiology. She earned her PhD in Genetics at the University of Iowa then came to MCW as a postdoctoral fellow. After growing the ranks to Associate Professor at MCW, Dr. Kwitek was recruited back to the University of Iowa where she remained until her return to MCW in 2019.
Dr. Kwitek is an animal and human geneticist whose research revolves around the genetics of complex disease with an emphasis on hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome (MetS). She currently has two major laboratory research interests. The first involves understanding the genetic susceptibility to complex human diseases, with a focus on obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiometabolic disease. The approach involves integrating genetics, genomics, and other ‘omics’ approaches to identify genes and mechanisms leading to complex disease using rat models and human populations. She is also studying how genomic variation affects and is affected by environmental stimuli to influence susceptibility to cardiometabolic disease.
Dr. Kwitek also leads the Rat Genome Database (RGD) and is a member of the Alliance of Genome Resources (Alliance). The goal of RGD (and the Alliance) is to provide a research platform that delivers the data and tools necessary for investigators to advance preclinical and translational research. This involves acquiring, validating, and integrating comprehensive genetic, genomic, phenotype and disease datasets for rat as well as human, mouse and other mammals used as human disease models. RGD has numerous disease portals dedicated to providing a centralized disease-based data and analysis environment for diseases such as obesity and metabolic syndrome, diabetes, renal disease, and cardiovascular disease to name a few.
Research Areas of Interest
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Computational Biology
- Database Management Systems
- Databases, Genetic
- Disease Models, Animal
- Gene Expression Regulation
- Genetic Linkage
- Genetic Predisposition to Disease
- Genetic Variation
- Genome, Human
- Genomics
- Hypertension
MCW Program / Core Facilities
- Biomedical Engineering (PhD)
- CTSI Obesity Ensemble
- Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Biomedical Sciences
- Physiology (PhD)
Research Interests
Dr. Kwitek’s major research focus involves understanding the genetic susceptibility to complex human diseases, with a focus on obesity, hypertension, and cardiometabolic disease. The approach involves integrating genetics, genomics, and other ‘omics’ approaches to identify genes and mechanisms leading to complex disease using rat models and human populations. Her studies also involve how genomic variation affects and is affected by environmental stimuli to influence susceptibility to cardiometabolic disease.
Publications
-
(Hull LE, Aday AW, Bui QM, Luzum JA, Muchira JM, Wand H, Chahal CAA, Chung MK, Kwitek AE, Molossi S, Natarajan P, American Heart Association Data Science and Precision Medicine Committee of the Council on Genomic and Precision Medicine and Council of Clinical Cardiology; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health; and Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease.) Circulation. 2025 Mar 13 PMID: 40079117 03/13/2025
-
Establishing the hybrid rat diversity program: a resource for dissecting complex traits.
(Dwinell MR, Takizawa A, Tutaj M, Malloy L, Schilling R, Endsley A, Demos WM, Smith JR, Wang SJ, De Pons J, Kundurthi A, Geurts AM, Kwitek AE.) Mamm Genome. 2025 Mar;36(1):25-37 PMID: 39907792 PMCID: PMC11880076 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85217741215 02/05/2025
-
(Ray A, Yang C, Stelloh C, Tutaj M, Liu P, Liu Y, Qiu Q, Auer PL, Lin CW, Widlansky ME, Geurts AM, Cowley AW Jr, Liang M, Kwitek AE, Greene AS, Rao S.) Hypertension. 2025 Mar;82(3):476-488 PMID: 39723540 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85213707759 12/26/2024
-
(Smith JR, Tutaj MA, Thota J, Lamers L, Gibson AC, Kundurthi A, Gollapally VR, Brodie KC, Zacher S, Laulederkind SJF, Hayman GT, Wang SJ, Tutaj M, Kaldunski ML, Vedi M, Demos WM, De Pons JL, Dwinell MR, Kwitek AE.) Database (Oxford). 2025 Jan 22;2025 PMID: 39841812 PMCID: PMC11753291 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85216608239 01/22/2025
-
A compendium of human gene functions derived from evolutionary modelling
(Feuermann M, Mi H, Gaudet P, Muruganujan A, Lewis SE, Ebert D, Mushayahama T, Westerfield M, Ruzicka L, Ramachandran S, Zorn A, Ponferrada V, James-Zorn C, Fisher M, Raciti D, Diamantakis S, Chan J, Zaru R, Warner K, Tyagi N, Speretta E, Raposo P, Orchard S, Martin MJ, Magrane M, Lussi Y, Lock A, Ishtiaq R, Ignatchenko A, Denny P, Bye-A-Jee H, Bowler-Barnett E, Sundaram S, Rivoire C, Poux S, Pourcel L, Pedruzzi I, Morgat A, Masson P, Lieberherr D, Le Mercier P, Jungo F, Hyka-Nouspikel N, Hulo C, Gruaz-Gumowski N, Gos A, Famiglietti ML, Estreicher A, Coudert E, Casals-Casas C, Bridge A, Breuza L, Boutet E, Blatter MC, Argoud-Puy G, Axelsen K, Auchincloss A, Reiser L, Berardini TZ, Bakker E, Verpelli C, Verhage M, van Weering JRT, Toonen RF, Smit AB, Smalla KH, Sheng M, Sala C, Ryan TA, Pielot R, O’Connor V, McPherson PS, MacGillavry HD, Lipstein N, Kreutz MR, Koopmans F, Kim E, Kaeser PS, Jung H, Jahn R, Imig C, Huganir RL, Gundelfinger ED, Goldschmidt HL, de Juan-Sanz J, Cornelisse LN, Coba MP, Chua JJE, Brose N, Biederer T, Bayés À, Bagni C, Andres-Alonso M, Achsel T, Wong ED, Weng S, Skrzypek MS, Nash RS, Miyasato SR, Karra K.) Nature. 2025 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85219022417 01/01/2025
-
(Thareja SK, Yang X, Upama PB, Abdullah A, Torres SP, Cocroft LJ, Bubolz M, McGaughey K, Lou X, Kamaraju S, Ahamed SI, Madiraju P, Kwitek AE, Whittle J, Franco Z.) J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2024 Dec 01;31(12):2940-2951 PMID: 39441983 PMCID: PMC11631115 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85212456796 10/23/2024
-
(Li K, Smith ML, Blazier JC, Kochan KJ, Wood JMD, Howe K, Kwitek AE, Dwinell MR, Chen H, Ciosek JL, Masterson P, Murphy TD, Kalbfleisch TS, Doris PA.) Genome Res. 2024 Nov 20;34(11):2081-2093 PMID: 39516046 PMCID: PMC11610589 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85209718679 11/13/2024
-
(Wildes MP, Fernando DG, Grobe CC, Reho JJ, Grobe JL, Kidambi S, Kindel TL, Kwitek AE, Segar JL, Williams JS, Morselli LL.) Endocrinology. 2024 Aug 27;165(10) PMID: 39236000 PMCID: PMC11408931 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85204510410 09/05/2024
-
Meta-Analytic Gene-Clustering Algorithm for Integrating Multi-Omics and Multi-Study Data.
(Kemmo Tsafack U, Ahn KW, Kwitek AE, Lin CW.) Bioengineering (Basel). 2024 Jun 08;11(6) PMID: 38927823 PMCID: PMC11201102 06/27/2024
-
Updates to the Alliance of Genome Resources central infrastructure.
(Alliance of Genome Resources Consortium .) Genetics. 2024 May 07;227(1) PMID: 38552170 PMCID: PMC11075569 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85193063498 03/29/2024
-
A revamped rat reference genome improves the discovery of genetic diversity in laboratory rats.
(de Jong TV, Pan Y, Rastas P, Munro D, Tutaj M, Akil H, Benner C, Chen D, Chitre AS, Chow W, Colonna V, Dalgard CL, Demos WM, Doris PA, Garrison E, Geurts AM, Gunturkun HM, Guryev V, Hourlier T, Howe K, Huang J, Kalbfleisch T, Kim P, Li L, Mahaffey S, Martin FJ, Mohammadi P, Ozel AB, Polesskaya O, Pravenec M, Prins P, Sebat J, Smith JR, Solberg Woods LC, Tabakoff B, Tracey A, Uliano-Silva M, Villani F, Wang H, Sharp BM, Telese F, Jiang Z, Saba L, Wang X, Murphy TD, Palmer AA, Kwitek AE, Dwinell MR, Williams RW, Li JZ, Chen H.) Cell Genom. 2024 Apr 10;4(4):100527 PMID: 38537634 PMCID: PMC11019364 03/28/2024
-
Diet in Food Insecurity: A Mediator of Metabolic Health?
(Morselli LL, Amjad R, James R, Kindel TL, Kwitek AE, Williams JS, Grobe JL, Kidambi S.) J Endocr Soc. 2024 Apr 06;8(6):bvae062 PMID: 38623381 PMCID: PMC11017326 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85190716270 04/16/2024