Sharon E. Plon BS, MD, PhD

Dr. Sharon Plon is a board-certified medical geneticist and a longstanding cancer genetics researcher, 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. 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.