Eric Reese Fearon is an American oncologist. He is the Emanuel N. Maisel Professor of Oncology at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and director of the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center.

Early life and education

Fearon was born to parents Margaret and Ross in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

and grew up alongside his older sister Gretchen. He attended Mt. Blue High School in

Farmington, Maine Farmington is a town in and the county seat of Franklin County, Maine, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 7,592. Farmington is home to the University of Maine at Farmington, Nordica Memorial Auditorium, the Nordica Homestea ...

before enrolling at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

for his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree,

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

, and PhD. During his graduate studies at Johns Hopkins, Fearon was inducted into the

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. After receiving his medical and doctoral degrees, Fearon conducted his postdoctoral research in the laboratory of

Chi Van Dang Chi Van Dang is a hematological oncologist and researcher, currently serving as the Scientific Director of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He is known for his research on genetics, the MYC gene and the cellular energy metabolism of cancer. ...

, where he developed a system for the study of protein-protein interactions in living mammalian cells. Fearon also enrolled at the

MD Anderson Cancer Center The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (colloquially MD Anderson Cancer Center) is a comprehensive cancer center in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the U.S. and one of the original three comprehensive cancer centers ...

and was awarded the Wilson S. Stone Memorial Award.

Career

Fearon joined the

(U-M) in 1995 as the associate director for Basic Science Research at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. In 1999, Fearon was elected a Fellow of the

American Society for Clinical Investigation The American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), established in 1908, is one of the oldest and most respected medical honor societies in the United States. Organization and purpose The ASCI is an honorary society to which more than 2,800 ph ...

(ASCI). He later served as president of the ASCI from 2005 to 2006. He was named deputy director of the Rogel Cancer Center in 2005 and was Director in 2016. During his tenure at U-M, Fearon's laboratory conducts research with the aim to address how cancer gene defects contribute to the development and progression of colorectal and other cancers. By 2013, he also served as the division chief of Molecular Medicine & Genetics in the Department of Internal Medicine and co-directed the U-M Cancer Center's Cancer Genetics Research Program. Fearon also chaired the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

and

National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ...

advisory groups and grant review committees. As a result of his research, Fearon was elected a member of the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

. A few years later, Fearon was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award in Biomedical Research for being "a giant in the field of carcinogenesis, specifically colorectal cancer." In 2018, Fearon was named a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

for "distinguished contributions to the cancer field, particularly in defining the role of accumulated mutations in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in colon cancer pathogenesis."

Personal life

Fearon and his wife, Kathleen R. Cho, have two daughters together.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fearon, Eric Living people University of Michigan faculty Johns Hopkins University alumni Scientists from Maine American oncologists Members of the National Academy of Medicine Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science People from Farmington, Maine Year of birth missing (living people)