Dean Sherry, Ph.D. - Faculty Profile

Biography

A. Dean Sherry, PhD, served as Professor of Chemistry at the University of Texas at Dallas for 50 years and Professor of Radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center for 35 years. He held the Cecil & Ida Green Distinguished Chair in Systems Biology at UT Dallas between 2005-2022 and served as Director of the Advanced Imaging Research Center at UT Southwestern from 2005-2019. He has been recognized for his outstanding achievements in chemistry by winning the Doherty Award from the DFW Section of the American Chemical Society in 1990, was honored by receiving the Chancellor’s Outstanding Teaching Award at UT-Dallas in 1994, was elected a Fellow of the ISMRM in 2011, and won the Gold Medal from the World Molecular Imaging Society in 2013. In 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the World Molecular Imaging Society and won the Gold Medal from the ISMRM for his work on MRI contrast agents. Dr. Sherry's research interests include applications of ²H and ¹³C stable isotopes as tracers of metabolism in vivo and the development of novel molecular imaging agents for MRI. He has been actively involved with the development of ¹³C isotopomer methods to measure flux through complex metabolic pathways in vivo and continues to apply those techniques to the analysis of liver and heart metabolism in small animal models and humans. Together with other scientists in the AIRC, he was involved in development of hyperpolarized ¹³C tracers for imaging metabolism in real time in isolated organs, intact animals and humans. He has also been active in the development of gadolinium complexes as MRI contrast agents since the early 1980s and is now working on the next generation smart agents that respond to biological indices such as pH and metal ions important in cellular metabolism. His group recently reported a novel Zn²⁺ sensor for monitoring beta-cell function in the pancreas in vivo by MRI and for detecting prostate cancer. He was first to report the use of europium complexes as PARACEST agents and maintains an active interest in developing novel paraCEST reporter systems for molecular imaging. He served as Deputy Editor for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine from 2010 to 2014 and as Associate Editor of Contrast Media & Molecular Imaging from 2005-2016. Dr. Sherry has founded two companies related to his research, Macrocyclics, Inc. in 1997 and VitalQuan, LLC in 2017. He was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2023.

Education

Undergraduate: Wisconsin State University , Chemistry
Graduate School: Kansas State University (1971), Chemistry

Research Interest

Stable isotope tracers for imaging metabolism in vivo, responsive MR imaging agents for detecting changes in biology or physiology in vivo, hyperpolarized 13C metabolite probes for imaging metabolism in vivo

Publications

Featured Publications

Protonation of carboxyl groups in EuDOTA-tetraamide complexes results in catalytic prototropic exchange and quenching of the CEST signal.: Zhang L, Evbuomwan OM, Tieu M, Zhao P, Martins AF, Sherry AD Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci 2017 Nov 375 2107
Transition Metal Doping Reveals Link between Electron T1 Reduction and 13C Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Efficiency.: Niedbalski P, Parish C, Wang Q, Hayati Z, Song L, Martins AF, Sherry AD, Lumata L J Phys Chem A 2017 Nov
Lanthanide-based T2ex and CEST complexes provide new insights into the design of pH sensitive MRI agents.: Zhang L, Martins AF, Zhao P, Wu Y, Tircso G, Sherry D Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2017 Oct
Enantiomeric recognition of D- and L-lactate by CEST with the aid of a paramagnetic shift reagent.: Zhang L, Martins AF, Zhao P, Tieu M, Esteban-Gomez D, McCandless GT, Platas-Iglesias C, Sherry AD J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017 Oct
The rate of lactate production from glucose in hearts is not altered by per-deuteration of glucose.: Funk AM, Anderson BL, Wen X, Hever T, Khemtong C, Kovacs Z, Sherry AD, Malloy CR J. Magn. Reson. 2017 Sep 284 86-93
Measuring glucose cerebral metabolism in the healthy mouse using hyperpolarized (13)C magnetic resonance.: Mishkovsky M, Anderson B, Karlsson M, Lerche MH, Sherry AD, Gruetter R, Kovacs Z, Comment A Sci Rep 2017 Sep 7 1 11719
On-bead combinatorial synthesis and imaging of europium(III)-based paraCEST agents aids in identification of chemical features that enhance CEST sensitivity.: Singh J, Rustagi V, Zhang S, Dean Sherry A, Gomika Udugamasooriya D Magn Reson Chem 2017 Feb
Oxidation of [U-(13) C]glucose in the human brain at 7T under steady state conditions.: Cheshkov S, Dimitrov IE, Jakkamsetti V, Good L, Kelly D, Rajasekaran K, DeBerardinis RJ, Pascual JM, Sherry AD, Malloy CR Magn Reson Med 2017 Jan
Influence of Dy(3+) and Tb(3+) doping on (13)C dynamic nuclear polarization.: Niedbalski P, Parish C, Kiswandhi A, Fidelino L, Khemtong C, Hayati Z, Song L, Martins A, Sherry AD, Lumata L J Chem Phys 2017 Jan 146 1 014303
Imaging extracellular lactate in vitro and in vivo using CEST MRI and a paramagnetic shift reagent.: Sherry D, Zhang L, Martins A, Mai Y, Zhao P, Funk A, Jordan V, Zhang S, Chen W, Wu Y Chemistry 2016 Dec

Honors & Awards

Honorary Doctorate, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
Honorary Doctoral Degree (2019)
Fellow, World Molecular Imaging Society
Fellow of the WMIS (2015)
Gold Medal Award, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Gold Medal Award (2015)
Gold Medal Award from the World Molecular Imaging Society
Gold Medal Award (2013)
Fellow, International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Fellow of the ISMRM (2011)
Director, Advanced Imaging Research Center
UT Southwestern (2005-2019)
Distinguished Chair in Systems Biology
UT Dallas (2005-2022)
Cecil & Ida Green Honors Chair in Chemistry
UT Dallas (2002-2005)
UT Dallas Chancellor's Council Outstanding Teaching Award
(1994)
WT Doherty Award
American Chemical Society (1990)
NIH Senior Fellow
(1983)
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow
(1971)