Sharon J. Diskin, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Oncology
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Faculty Affiliations

Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics (DBHi) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Center for Childhood Cancer Research (CCCR) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute (AFCRI) at the University of Pennsylvania


Curriculum Vitae
Phone: (215) 590-9160
Email: diskin@chop.edu
LinkedIn.com/sharon-diskin
Twitter.com/sjdiskin


Education

B.S., Computer Science, Villanova University
M.S., Computer Science, University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D., Genomics and Computational Biology, University of Pennsylvania


Biography

Sharon is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a faculty member of the Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics and  Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. As an interdisciplinary scientist trained in cancer genomics and computational biology, Sharon’s laboratory harnesses both quantitative and experimental approaches to discover the inherited and acquired events driving pediatric cancers, and to identify novel targets for immunotherapy. Her overarching goal is to improve outcomes for children diagnosed with cancer. Sharon earned her Ph.D. in Genomics and Computational Biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008. Her work identifying both germline and somatic copy number variants associated with the childhood cancer neuroblastoma won the Saul Winegrad Award for Outstanding Dissertation. She received a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue her work as a postdoctoral research scientist (2008-2012) and joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania (2012). She was promoted to Associate Professor in Spring 2020. Sharon is an active member of the Genomics and Computational Biology (GCB) and Cell and Molecular Biology (CAMB) graduate groups at the University of Pennsylvania, and is committed to training scientists at all levels. The theme of her research remains the integration of quantitative computational methods with rigorous “wet-lab” experimental approaches to advance pediatric cancer research and ultimately find cures.