Sharon E. Plon, MD, PhD, FACMG
Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center Professorship, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology-Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine
Co-Director, Pediatric Cancer Program, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Director, Cancer Genetics Clinics, Texas Children’s Hospital
Co-Director, Cancer Genetics and Genomics Program, Texas Children’s Hospital
Professor, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics and Member, Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine
Faculty Member, Genetics and Genomics and the Cancer and Cell Biology graduate programs, The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine
Assistant Dean, Dual Degree Programs and Pathways, School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
Office location:
1102 Bates Avenue
Houston, TX 77030
Get to know Sharon E. Plon, MD, PhD, FACMG
Dr. Sharon Plon is a board-certified medical geneticist and a longstanding cancer genetics researcher, including leading to the discovery of new cancer susceptibility genes and the implementation of genomic testing in medicine. She holds the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center Professorship at Baylor College of Medicine in the Departments of Pediatrics (Division of Hematology-Oncology), Molecular and Human Genetics and Human Genome Sequencing Center. She completed her genetics training at the University of Washington. Dr. Plon has been at Baylor College of Medicine for over 30 years and founded and continues to direct the Cancer Genetics Clinic at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Plon served on the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics. She has also worked with the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) to develop an online resource for physicians with up-to-date recommendations for cancer surveillance in those children at genetic risk of cancer. She was the Director of the M.D./Ph.D. Medical Scientist Training Program at Baylor College of Medicine before assuming her current role as Assistant Dean of the Dual Degree Programs and Pathways for the School of Medicine.
Drs. Plon and Donald Williams (Will) Parsons were principal investigators of the NHGRI/NCI-funded BASIC3 clinical trial on the incorporation of exome sequencing into the care of newly diagnosed childhood cancer patients and the expansion of this study into diverse patient populations across Texas through completion of the KidsCanSeq trial.
Since 2013, Dr. Plon has served as one of the Principal Investigators of the Clinical Genome (ClinGen) Resource and chairs the ClinGen hereditary cancer effort. She currently co-chairs the germline reporting effort of the national NCI/COG Pediatric MATCH Precision Oncology trial.
Education
| School | Education | Degree | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Washington | Fellowship | Clinical Genetics | 1993 |
| NIH | Fellowship | Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Cancer Genetics | 2037 |
| University of Washington | Internship | Internal Medicine | 1988 |
| Harvard Medical School | Medical School | Doctor of Medicine | 1987 |
| Harvard University | PhD | Doctor of Philosophy, Biophysics | 1987 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Bachelors | Bachelor of Science, Chemical Engineering | 1980 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Bachelors | Bachelor of Science, Chemistry | 1979 |
Organizations
| Organization Name | Role |
|---|---|
| American Association Cancer Research (AACR) | Member |
| American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) | Founding Member |
| American Society Human Genetics (ASHG) | Former Member, Board of Directors |
Board Certification
| Title |
|---|
| American Board of Medical Genetics - Clinical Genetics |
Honors and awards
- 2025
-
Arthur Beaudet Prize in Mentoring, Baylor College of Medicine
- 2024
-
2024 Arno and Gretel Motulsky Lecture, University of Washington
- 2021
-
Jeffrey M. Trent Lecture in Cancer Research, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH
- 2019
-
11th annual Niehaus, Southworth, Weissenbach Award in Clinical Cancer Genetics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- 2018
-
Kenneth Scott Mentor Award, Baylor College of Medicine
- 2017
-
Frederick Li Lectureship, “The Expanding Landscape of Genetic Susceptibility to Cancer”, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- 2014
-
Baylor Research Advocates for Student Scientists Mentor of the Year Award
- 2012
-
Barbara and Corbin J. Robertson, Jr. Presidential Award for Excellence in Education, Baylor College of Medicine
* Texas Children’s Hospital physicians’ licenses and credentials are reviewed prior to practicing at any of our facilities. Sections titled From the Doctor, Professional Organizations and Publications were provided by the physician’s office and were not verified by Texas Children’s Hospital.
Highlights
The Future of Pediatric Cancer Care Now: Precision Oncology at Texas Children’s
ClinGen creates a robust, open-access platform to define the clinical relevance of genes and vari...
Read More
Research Area:
Genetics and Genomics
Dr. Plon’s translational research has focused on analysis of patients with inherited susceptibility to childhood cancer, for example, Rothmund Thomson syndrome associated with mutations in the RECQL4 gene and predisposition to osteosarcoma. Over the last 10 years, her research group has also reported on novel mechanisms of AML predisposition (microdeletion of 21q22), a novel chromosome breakage syndrome (LICS) and enrolling and interrogating the constitutional genome in families with unusual patterns of childhood cancer and congenital anomalies through whole genome and exome sequencing.
Dr. Plon serves as co-PI with Donald Williams (Will) Parsons and Amy McGuire of the recently renewed NHGRI/NCI sponsored clinical sequencing exploratory research (CSER) project at Baylor College of Medicine on incorporating CLIA clinical genome-scale exome sequencing into the care of newly diagnosed childhood cancer patients (solid tumors and brain tumors) in the diverse patient populations across five sites in Texas. The initial CSER study (BASIC3) revealed that approximately 10% of unselected children with cancer have underlying cancer susceptibility mutations.
In 2013, Dr. Plon was name co-Principal investigator of the NHGRI U01 grant with Carlos Bustamante to support the development of a comprehensive Clinical Genomics (ClinGen).