Cancer biologist Patrick Sung was among the first to understand the roles of BRCA1 and BRCA2 in DNA repair, with findings published in prestigious journals such as Cell; Genes and Development; Nature; and, Science. He has played a leading role in teaching, advising, and mentoring students and fellows, serving on various NIH study sections and editorial boards, including Genes and Development since 2002, and as an Editor or Associate Editor of Molecular & Cellular Biology from 2000-2008 and The Journal of Biological Chemistry since 2014. Currently, he is a Professor of Biochemistry and Structural Biology at UT Health San Antonio, an Established Investigator of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), and Director of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute (CCRI). He also holds the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry and has received an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute.
Born in Hong Kong, Patrick Sung earned his doctoral degree from Oxford University. After a postdoctoral fellowship with Louise and Satya Prakash at the University of Rochester, he established his laboratory in 1993 at UT Medical Branch, Galveston. He was later elected into the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering while a faculty member at Yale University, where he also served as Chair of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry for six years. Recruited to UT Health San Antonio in 2019, he continues to investigate DNA repair mechanisms using biochemical, genetic, and cell-biological approaches. Committed to training the next generation of scientists, his lab is continually seeking exceptional postdoctoral fellows, with research generously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and UT Health San Antonio.
