Dr. Ralph DeBerardinis, 
Professor at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI), was elected into the Association of American Physicians (AAP). Election to the AAP is considered a top honor in science and medicine as it recognizes researchers who have made impactful contributions to improve public health. New members are chosen in a competitive process by current members.
“It’s an honor to be elected into the Association of American Physicians. As a physician-scientist interested in mechanisms of human disease, I am delighted to be part of this community,” said Dr. DeBerardinis, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator.
Dr. DeBerardinis was recognized for his ongoing work to understand the role of metabolic abnormalities in disease, particularly in the field of cancer. His lab’s approaches to studying metabolism in cancer patients is providing researchers with insights impossible to obtain from purely laboratory-based experiments. Dr. DeBerardinis and his collaborators have already studied metabolism in nearly a dozen forms of human cancer. Findings from his research have led to the discovery that lactate provides fuel for growing tumors, challenging a nearly century-old observation known as the Warburg effect.
“Ralph is an exemplary physician-scientist. He is both a talented clinical geneticist and outstanding mechanistic scientist. He uses his clinical acumen to select and address key questions regarding the metabolic basis of genetic diseases, including cancer,” said his nominator Dr. Helen Hobbs, Director of the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics at UT Southwestern, and an HHMI Investigator.
Currently, the AAP has over 1,700 active members and approximately 600 emeritus and honorary members from the United States, Canada, and other countries. Dr. DeBerardinis will be inducted with other new members, including fellow UT Southwestern faculty members Suzanne Conzen and Dwight Towler, next April at the annual meeting.
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At UT Southwestern, Dr. DeBerardinis is a Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism. He holds the Joel B. Steinberg, M.D. Chair in Pediatrics and is a Sowell Family Scholar in Medical Research. He also directs CRI’s Genetic and Metabolic Disease Program (GMDP). Dr. DeBerardinis is affiliated with the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development and the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, both at UT Southwestern. He is also a Robert L. Moody, Sr., Faculty Scholar.
Dr. Hobbs holds the Eugene McDermott Distinguished Chair for the Study of Human Growth and Development, the Philip O’Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology, and the 1995 Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Cardiology Research.
