Dr. Sharon Diskin

Biography

Sharon J. Diskin, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests are centered on translational genomics in childhood cancers, particularly focusing on the intricate interplay between germline and tumor genetics and how they affect tumor initiation, progression, and response to therapy. Dr. Diskin's multi-disciplinary research program integrates computational analyses with large-scale data generation, including sequencing, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping, and various expression profiling techniques such as mRNA, miRNA, and lincRNA. She places a strong emphasis on rigorous experimental validation of her findings. One of her significant contributions to the field includes defining neuroblastoma-associated SNPs and copy number variations (CNVs) that influence tumorigenesis and patient outcomes, where she identified LIN28B as a major oncogenic driver. Currently, she is also investigating genetic susceptibility related to treatment-induced comorbidities such as platinum-induced hearing loss.

Research Interests