Life, legacy of 2024 Basser Global Prize winner Patrick Sung

World-renowned biochemist and expert on the roles of BRCA1 and BRCA 2 in DNA repair, Patrick Sung, DPhil, director of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute and associate dean for research at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) was recently recognized as the 2024 recipient of the Basser Global Prize.

The Basser Global Prize, presented by the Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, annually recognizes a scientist who advances research in BRCA1 and BRCA2-related areas. Individuals with mutations in these genes are at an increased risk of developing certain cancers, including breast, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancer.

Sung’s career is defined by the unyielding pursuit of scientific knowledge and passion for making lasting contributions to the field of molecular biology. Through the years, his work significantly advanced our understanding of how cells repair DNA damage through homologous recombination and the crucial roles of BRCA1 and BRCA2 proteins in cancer prevention.

Early life

Born in 1959 in Hong Kong, Sung embarked on his lifelong journey of biochemical discovery at the University of Liverpool and Oxford University. While at Oxford, he trained in biochemistry and enzymology, focusing on how vitamin K-dependent carboxylase is involved in blood clotting. Sung’s studies of DNA repair mechanisms were finely honed while completing his postdoctoral fellowship under the guidance of Louise Prakash, PhD, and Satya Prakash, PhD, at the University of Rochester.

A lab of his own

After his postdoctoral fellowship, Sung established his first laboratory in 1993 at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Here, his research focused on how cells use homologous recombination to repair DNA breaks and crosslinks. Sung’s research shows how exogenous forces like radiation, chemicals and other factors can damage DNA and lead to double-strand breaks. If the breaks are not repaired, it can lead to cell death, mutations, and ultimately, cancer. Homologous recombination aims to repair these strand breaks with minimal changes to the genome. Sung’s pivotal work includes the study of the recombinase enzyme Rad51, the discovery of how recombination mediators promote Rad51 activity and investigation into the role of helicase and nuclease enzymes that have a key role in DNA repair.

Noted subject matter expert

Throughout his career, Sung has served on many National Institutes of Health study sections and editorial boards, including Genes and Development and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. From 2000 to 2008, he was an editor for Molecular & Cellular Biology and since 2014, an associate editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Additional accolades

Sung’s work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Society of Chinese Biologists in America Ray Wu Award in 1999 and the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Basic Science Award in 2018. He also delivered the Mendel Lecture in 2018. In 2019, he was named a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar and honored that year with the National Cancer Institute’s Outstanding Investigator Award. In 2021, he was named Postdoctoral Mentor of the Year at UT Health San Antonio.

Academic appointments

During his academic career, from 1993 to 1997, Sung was an assistant professor of human biological chemistry at UT Medical Branch Galveston and an associate professor and Zachry Distinguished Professor of Molecular Medicine at UT Health San Antonio from 1997 to 2003. From 2003 to 2019, Sung was a professor of molecular biophysics, biochemistry, therapeutic radiology and epidemiology at Yale University. He was recruited to UT Health San Antonio in 2019 as a professor of biochemistry and structural biology, associate dean for research and the Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair of Biochemistry.

A valued leader and mentor

Sung’s leadership roles include chairing the graduate program in molecular medicine from 1997 to 2000 and co-directing the NCI training program in DNA repair at UT Health San Antonio from 2000 to 2003. He was a charter member of many NIH study sections between 2000 and 2019 and served on the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council from 2018 to 2019.

In February 2022, Sung was appointed as the director of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute at UT Health San Antonio. Today, he continues to mentor junior faculty, serve as the associate dean of research for the Long School of Medicine, and was the co-lead for the Cancer Development and Progression Program at the Mays Cancer Center and served as the interim director of the Mays Cancer Center for 20 months in 2023 to 2024. In his role as the leader for CPRIT scholar recruitment, Sung has thus far secured $44 million from the program for UT Health San Antonio. He has mentored 25 postdoctoral fellows and 14 PhD students who have all remained in either academic science or gained employment in the industry.

Sung is internationally recognized as a leader in the study of the mechanistic biochemistry of DNA repair. To date, he has 302 published research articles, 205 of which are original research papers. He has a Scopus h-index score of 87 with more than 26,000 citations. In September 2024, Sung was awarded a $12.6 million NIH grant to head a program to further advance groundbreaking research into biological mechanisms of BRCA1, BRCA2 and related tumor suppressors that can lead to understanding cancer drug resistance mechanisms and novel cancer treatments.

Through his discoveries, leadership and mentorship, Sung’s efforts have shaped the future of molecular biology and cancer research. His unwavering commitment to advancing scientific knowledge, coupled with his devotion to developing the next generation of biomedical researchers, ensures his impact will be felt for years to come.

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