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TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology) has announced Gerta Hoxhaj, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI), as recipient of the 2025 Mary Beth Maddox Award and Lectureship in cancer research. She was chosen for her work in cancer metabolism and revealing new mechanisms crucial for the growth and survival of cancer cells.
The Mary Beth Maddox Award and Lectureship recognizes women scientists in Texas bringing new ideas and innovations to the fight against cancer. It was established in 2022 in honor of Mary Beth Maddox, former Executive Director of TAMEST, who passed away after a valiant battle with pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Hoxhaj has changed scientists’ understanding of cancer metabolism. Altered metabolism and abnormal activation of signaling networks are two major hallmarks of cancer. Dr. Hoxhaj’s work seeks to understand mechanisms that connect abnormal activation of signaling networks with metabolic reprogramming to promote tumor growth.
Healthy human cells largely regulate their metabolism – the way they use nutrients to produce energy and building blocks – through signals that are initiated by growth factors and other extracellular cues. In malignant cells, many of these signals become chronically activated by the mutations that cause cancer. A key challenge in understanding cancer biology is to identify the connections between hyperactivated signals and the growth-promoting metabolic pathways they regulate.
Dr. Hoxhaj’s research is creating a blueprint of the connections between signaling and metabolism. Her lab has defined new ways in which cellular signals stimulate metabolism in cancer cells and new metabolic pathways that drive tumor growth.
“Gerta is an outstanding candidate for the 2025 Mary Beth Maddox Award and Lectureship because her work consistently changes the way we think about cancer metabolism,” said Nominator and TAMEST Member Sean J. Morrison, Ph.D. (NAM, NAS), CRI Director and Professor in CRI and Pediatrics. “She is a ball of energy, with the insight and good taste to make discoveries that reveal new biology.”
“Dr. Hoxhaj’s approach puts old assumptions to the test and delivers surprising new insights. She identifies nodes of communication between signal transduction and metabolism, some of which could be excellent therapeutic targets,” said Mary Beth Maddox Award and Lectureship Committee Chair Ralph J. DeBerardinis, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM), Professor and Director of the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development at UT Southwestern and Professor in CRI. “The committee unanimously agreed she is a rock star in her field. We look forward to the new discoveries and collaborations that will arise from her work.”
Dr. Hoxhaj will be honored at the TAMEST 2025 Annual Conference: Transformational Breakthroughs, where she will present her research to attendees and receive a $5,000 honorarium and award. The conference will take place Feb. 4-6, 2025, at the Westin Las Colinas in Irving, Texas.
In addition to being honored at the TAMEST Annual Conference, Dr. Hoxhaj will promote her work and discoveries across the state during established lectures and seminars at TAMEST member institutions with National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers:
• Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine
• John H. Blaffer Lecture Series, MD Anderson Cancer Center
• Mays Cancer Center Grand Rounds, UT Health San Antonio
• Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center
The award covers the recipient’s travel and lodging for lectures and includes organized visits and networking at the Cancer Centers.
Dr. Hoxhaj is a member of the CRI Genetic and Metabolic Disease Program. She is a Pew-Stewart Scholar, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar in Cancer Research, V Foundation Scholar, American Cancer Society Scholar, and 2024 recipient of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science.
In addition to CRI, Dr. Hoxhaj is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Pediatrics at UT Southwestern and a member of the Cellular Networks in Cancer Research Program in the Simmons Cancer Center.
About CRI
Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) is a joint venture of UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center Dallas. CRI’s mission is to perform transformative biomedical research to better understand the biological basis of disease. Located in Dallas, Texas, CRI is home to interdisciplinary groups of scientists and physicians pursuing research at the interface of regenerative medicine, cancer biology and metabolism.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 24 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,200 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in more than 80 specialties to more than 120,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5 million outpatient visits a year.
About TAMEST
TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology) was co-founded in 2004 by the Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison and Nobel Laureates Michael S. Brown, M.D., and Richard E. Smalley, Ph.D. With more than 345 members, eight Nobel Laureates and 23 member institutions, TAMEST is composed of Texas-based members of the three National Academies (National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Sciences) and other honorific organizations. We bring together the state’s brightest minds in medicine, engineering, science and technology to foster collaboration, and to advance research, innovation and business in Texas.
TAMEST’s unique interdisciplinary model has become an effective recruitment tool for top research and development centers across Texas. Since our founding, more than 300 TAMEST members have been inducted into the National Academies or recruited to Texas.
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