Ralph DeBerardinis earned a B.S. in biology from St. Joseph’s University and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. DeBerardinis was the first trainee in the combined residency program in pediatrics and medical genetics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and received several awards for teaching and clinical care. He ultimately achieved board certification in pediatrics, medical genetics and clinical biochemical genetics.

Dr. DeBerardinis performed postdoctoral research in Craig Thompson’s laboratory in the Penn Cancer Center from 2004 to 2007. He joined the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2008 and joined the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) shortly after its founding in 2012. Dr. DeBerardinis serves as chief of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism at UT Southwestern and director of the Genetic and Metabolic Disease Program in the CRI.

Dr. DeBerardinis received an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute in 2017 and the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine from The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST) in 2019. He holds the Joel B. Steinberg, M.D. Chair in Pediatrics, and he is a Sowell Family Scholar in Medical Research and a Robert L. Moody Faculty Scholar. In 2020, he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.