Ralph DeBerardinis, M.D., Ph.D., a Professor at CRI, was one of three researchers awarded the 2021 Memorial Sloan Kettering Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research.

The award recognizes outstanding early and midcareer investigators who have made significant contributions to increase the understanding of cancer or improve the treatment of the disease through basic or clinical research.

Dr. DeBerardinis, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator, is known for his discoveries in cancer metabolism and research into genetic conditions in children known as inborn errors of metabolism. At UT Southwestern, he is co-leader of the Cellular Networks in Cancer Program at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“I am honored to receive this award and follow in the footsteps of many other amazing cancer researchers,” said Dr. DeBerardinis, who is Chief of the Division of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism at UT Southwestern and an attending physician at Children’s Health℠. “It’s a particular honor to receive an award named for Dr. Marks, a geneticist and physician-scientist who had a transformative impact on research and treatment in cancer.”

Dr. DeBerardinis’ achievements include helping to pioneer a new way to study altered metabolism directly in cancer patients. This has allowed his team to uncover the mechanisms by which tumors use nutrients to produce energy and to identify metabolic pathways that allow tumors to grow and spread. The approach provides researchers with insights about cancer metabolism in the human body, which differs in some ways from the metabolism of the same cells growing in laboratory dishes. This approach is now being used to study metabolism in patients with nearly a dozen forms of cancer. The long-term goal of this research is to develop new drugs that destroy cancer cells by targeting metabolic differences between cancer cells and normal cells.

“Ralph is changing the field of cancer metabolism by pioneering new approaches to study tumor metabolism in humans. His studies reveal the importance of mitochondrial function in many cancers, a facet of cellular metabolism that was underappreciated in cancer,” said Sean Morrison, Ph.D., Director of the CRI and member of the Simmons Cancer Center, who serves on the selection committee.