Dr.  Sharon Plon is the co-principal investigator on the Crazy 8 team studying newborn screening for early childhood cancer predisposition syndromes.

She 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.