Dr. Marlys Witte, MD is a long standing faculty member in the College of Medicine, Department of Surgery. During her career she has mentored hundreds of students supported by a continuous sequence of NIH multi-institute training grants acquired since 1982. These NIH research pipeline/ training grants, an earlier federally funded nationwide “Women in Medical Academia” project organized in the mid-1970's, and service reflect a long-standing commitment to leadership training, equity, diversity, and disadvantaged populations including but not limited to underrepresented ethnic minorities, women, and the disabled. Her 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,” which aims to nurture “curiosity” (an “addiction” to ignorance/ unanswered questions-unquestioned answers).
Extensive 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 lymphangio- gene¬sis genes and their syndromic/phenotypic manifestations.