Marlys H Witte

Marlys H Witte

Professor, Surgery
Professor, Neurosurgery
Professor, Pediatrics
Member of the General Faculty
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 626-6118

Work Summary

Graduate of Barnard College, NYU School of Medicine, Internal Medicine Residency, UNC and Bellevue Hospital, Internal Medicine. Faculty: Washington University SOM and University of Arizona, Department of Surgery, 1969-present (Professor); Director, Student Research Programs, UA College of Medicine, 1982-present. Past-President (1985-1987) and current Secretary-General (1987-) International Society of Lymphology, Chief Editor, Lymphology. Mentored hundreds of students supported by NIH multi-institute training grants since 1982 to develop diverse research workforce pipelines. “Women in Medical Academia” in mid-1970's and service reflect a long-standing commitment to leadership training, equity, diversity, and disadvantaged populations. Educational activities have an overlying theme of “medical ignorance” – “what we know we don’t know, don’t know we don’t know, and think we know but don’t,” aiming to nurture “curiosity”.

Research Interest

Extensive international activities in clinical and basic lymphology – the study of lymphatics, lymph, lymphocytes, and lymph nodes in health and disease. Translational interests and contributions have spanned blood/lymphatic vascular endothelial cell biology and pathobiology in vitro and in vivo, hepatosplanchnic lymphatic/microcirculatory physiology, small animal models, in vivo lymphatic imaging, thoracic duct lymph drainage, lymphogenous cancer spread, and genomics/proteomics of lymphedema-angiodysplasia syndromes in man and experimental models, including defects, deficiency, and overexpression of human and murine lymphangiogenesis genes and their syndromic/phenotypic manifestations. Some of these findings are leading to new approaches to understanding and treating a variety of disorders arising in the lymphatic system or secondarily affecting its function.