Ralph J. DeBerardinis

Ralph DeBerardinis is a leading researcher in cancer cell metabolism who has made foundational contributions to understanding how cancer cells use nutrients to support rapid growth. His laboratory pioneered the use of stable isotope tracing to map metabolic flux in living tumors, revealing how glutamine fuels the TCA cycle and biosynthesis in rapidly proliferating cancer cells. DeBerardinis demonstrated that MYC-driven cancers exhibit enhanced glutamine uptake and that glutamine catabolism is essential for these tumors, identifying metabolic vulnerabilities for therapeutic targeting. His work bridges pediatric inborn errors of metabolism and cancer metabolic reprogramming.