Sharon E. Plon, MD, PhD, FACMG
- Cancer and Blood Disorders
Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center Professorship, Department of Pediatrics/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. Dr. Plon holds the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center Professorship at Baylor College of Medicine in the Departments of Pediatrics/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 25 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. Dr. Plon 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 D. William 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 this study is now being expanded into diverse patient populations across Texas (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.
Dr. Plon is also working closely with Dr. Philip Lupo on a population-based study to understand the association between birth defects and cancer risk in children.
Education
| School | Education | Degree | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Washington | Fellowship | Clinical Genetics | 1993 |
| NIH/NIAID | Fellowship | Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Cancer Genetics | 1990 |
| 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) | Board of Directors |
Board Certification
American Board of Medical Genetics - Clinical Genetics
* 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
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 ten 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 D. William Parsons and Amy McGuire of the recently renewed NHGRI/NCI sponsored clinical sequencing exploratory research (CSER) project at BCM 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).
Parsons DW, Roy A, Yang Y, Wang T, Scollon S, Bergstrom K, Kerstein RA, Gutierrez S, Petersen AK, Bavle A, Lin FY, Lopez-Terrada DH, Monzon FA, Hicks MJ, Eldin KW, Quintanilla NM, Adesina AM, Mohila CA, Whitehead W, Jea A, Vasudevan SA, Nuchtern JG, Ramamurthy U, McGuire AL, Hilsenbeck SG, Reid JG, Muzny DM, Wheeler DA, Berg SL, Chintagumpala MM, Eng CM, Gibbs RA, Plon SE (2016). Diagnostic Yield of Clinical Tumor and Germline Whole Exome Sequencing for Children with Solid Tumors. JAMA Oncology, JAMA Oncol. Epub January 28, 2016.
van der Crabben SN, Hennus MP, McGregor G, Ritter DI, Nagamani SC, Wells OS, Harakalova M, Chinn IK, Alt A, Vondrova L, Hochstenbach R, van Montfrans JM, Terheggen-Lagro SW, van Lieshout S, van Roosmalen MJ, Renkens I, Duran K, Nijman IJ, Kloosterman WP, Hennekam E, Orange JS, van Hasselt PM, Wheeler DA, Palecek JJ, Lehmann AR, Oliver AW, Pearl LH, +Plon SE, +Murray JM, +van Haaften G (2016). Chromosome breakage syndrome with severe lung disease through destabilized SMC5/6 complex. JCI, 126(8):2881-92. +co-senior authors.
Rehm HL, Berg JS, Brooks LD, Bustamante CD, Evans JP, Landrum MJ, Ledbetter DH, Maglott DR, Martin CL, Nussbaum RL, Plon SE, Ramos EM, Sherry ST, Watson MS (2015). ClinGen: The Clinical Genome Resource, New England J Medicine, Jun 4;372(23):2235-42.