Charis Eng, MD, PhD, founder and former director of the Genomic Medicine Institute at Cleveland Clinic and a professor of molecular medicine at its Lerner College of Medicine, died August 13, 2024. She was 62 years old.
Born in Singapore in 1962, Eng grew up there and in Bristol, UK, and entered the University of Chicago (UC) at the age of 16, graduating in 1982. She received a medical degree from the UC Pritzker School of Medicine in 1986 and a doctoral degree in 1988.
She completed a residency in internal medicine at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in 1991 and fellowships in medical oncology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in 1992 and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) in 1995. She also had a fellowship in clinical cancer genetics at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine in 1995.
After her postgraduate training, Eng joined DFCI as an assistant professor of medicine. In 1999, she moved to The Ohio State University as associate professor of medicine and director of the clinical cancer genetics program at the James Cancer Center. She became co-director of the division of human genetics in the department of internal medicine in 2001 and full professor and division director in 2002.
Eng went to Cleveland Clinic in 2005, where she founded the Genomic Medicine Institute. She was director of the institute until 2024, when she became director of genomic research strategies for the clinic.
Eng’s research focused on cancer genetics and genomic medicine and the association of genetic mutations with hereditary cancer syndromes, including links between the PTEN and Cowden syndrome, which predisposes patients to several types of cancer.
An AACR member since 1998, she served as a senior editor of the AACR journal Cancer Research from 2004 to 2009. In 2014, she received the AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship. Eng was elected a fellow of the American College of Physicians in 1999 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2003, a member of the Association of American Physicians in 2004, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2010. In 2018, she received the American Cancer Society’s Medal of Honor for her achievements in clinical research.
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