Marlys Hearst Witte, MD

Dr. Marlys Witte is a world-recognized pioneer in clinical and basic lymphology - the study of lymphatics, lymph, lymphocytes, and lymph nodes in health and disease. She received her medical education with honors at NYU School of Medicine, and post-graduate residency training at The University of North Carolina-North Carolina Memorial Hospital, NYU-Bellevue Medical Center, and NIH fellowship andAmerican Heart Association Established Investigator atWashington University in St. Louis/Barnes Hospital. Her translational interests and contributions together with her late husband, also Professor of Surgery, Dr. Charles Witte, have ranged from blood/lymphatic vascular endothelial cell biology and pathobiology in vitro and in vivo, hepatosplanchniclymphatic/microcirculatory physiology, small animal models, invivo lymphatic imaging (most recently in collaboration with her son, Professor of Medical Imaging, Russell Witte, PhD) thoracic duct lymph drainage, lymphogenous cancer spread, and genomics/proteomics of lymphedema-angiodysplasia syndromes, defects, and over expression of lymphangiogenesis genes VEGFR3. She maintains an interest in a variety of infectious diseases and immune disorders. 

Author of more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, recipient of numerous international honors, she has received continuous funding from NIH (as well as other government, AMA, and non-profit agency grants) since she was a medical resident. She has served as Program Director of the University of Arizona's only NIH General Clinical Research Center and she has mentored thousands of diverse, multilevel (medical, high-school, undergraduate and graduate) students (many from disadvantaged backgrounds) in her career with a special interest in teaching "medical ignorance" - "what we know we don't know, don't know we don't know, and think we know but don't".