George Charames

Dr. George Charames is a board-certified clinical molecular geneticist.

He currently serves as the Director and Head of the Advanced Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory in Mount Sinai Hospital's Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine, and Associate Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. 

He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ABMGG), and a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG).

Dr. Charames received his MSc and PhD from the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto. He then went on to complete his Clinical Molecular Genetics Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, USA. 

Dr. Charames' research interests are in the development of genomics strategies for improved clinical diagnostics, prognostics, and treatment of cancers. He has a special focus in breast, ovarian, and gastrointestinal cancers, in addition to sarcomas. His translational research approach aims to improve precision medicine.

Research Synopsis

Dr. George Charames is the Director and Head of the Advanced Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory in Mount Sinai Hospital's Department of Pathology and Lab Medicine, and Associate Professor in LMP at the University of Toronto.

The diagnostic lab performs a wide range of diagnostic tests for a multitude of disorders including Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer, Lynch Syndrome and Familial Adenomatous Polyposis.

Additionally, his diagnostic lab examines genetic material from a variety of tumours, including breast, colon, and sarcomas, to identify molecular biomarkers that aid in the prognosis and management of these cancers.

Dr. Charames' research interests are in the development of genomics strategies for improved clinical diagnostics, prognostics, and treatment of cancers.

He has a special focus in breast, ovarian, and gastrointestinal cancers, in addition to sarcomas.

His translational research approach aims to use high throughput genomic sequencing, in addition to biomarker discovery technologies, to improve precision medicine.

Genomic Medicine

Dr. Charames has implemented Next Generation Sequencing technology in the molecular diagnostic lab for the detection of genes associated with hereditary cancers, as well tumour testing.

One of his interests are to expand this high-throughput genomic sequencing methodology and our custom bioinformatics pipeline for the development of novel genomic approaches for application to other areas of genetic medicine, including prognostic biomarker discovery, oncogenomics, and pharmacogenomics.

Biomarker Discovery

Dr. Charames has established strong collaborations with experts in the field of proteomics and biomarker discovery.

His research interests are to identify novel biomarkers in breast cancer diagnostics and prognostics, through the use of state-of-the-art mass spectrometry and next-generation sequencing technologies.

His objective is to improve upon current strategies, while providing a more sensitive and non-invasive alternative for cancer patients.

Selected Publications

Turashvili G, Lazaro C, Ying S, Charames G, Wong A, Hamilton K, Yee D, Agro E, Chang M, Pollett A, Lerner-Ellis J. Tumor BRCA Testing in High Grade Serous Carcinoma: Mutation Rates and Optimal Tissue Requirements. Cancers (Basel). 2020 Nov 21;12(11):3468. doi: 10.3390/cancers12113468. PMID: 33233347; PMCID: PMC7700467.

Lerner-Ellis J, Mighton C, Lazaro C, Watkins N, Di Gioacchino V, Wong A, Chang MC, Charames GS. Multigene panel testing for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer in the province of Ontario. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2021 Mar;147(3):871-879. doi: 10.1007/s00432-020-03377-6. Epub 2020 Sep 3. Erratum in: J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2020 Sep 25;: PMID: 32885271.

Hahn E, Charames GS. Germline-somatic fluidity in guiding patient care. Ann Oncol. 2020 Aug;31(8):1089-1090. doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2020.04.472. Epub 2020 May 6. PMID: 32387416.

McGillis L, Mittal N, Santa Mina D, So J, Soowamber M, Weinrib A, Soever L, Rozenberg D, Liu L, Tse Y, Katz J, Charames GS, Murphy K, Vadas P, Slepian MP, Walsh S, Wilson L, Adler A, Franzese A, Hussey L, Nevay DL, Guzman J, Clarke H. Utilization of the 2017 diagnostic criteria for hEDS by the Toronto GoodHope Ehlers-Danlos syndrome clinic: A retrospective review. Am J Med Genet A. 2020 Mar;182(3):484-492. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.a.61459. Epub 2019 Dec 16. PMID: 31840928.

Lerner-Ellis J, Sopik V, Wong A, Lázaro C, Narod SA, Charames GS. Retesting of women who are negative for a BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation using a 20-gene panel. J Med Genet. 2020 Jun;57(6):380-384. doi: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2019-106403. Epub 2019 Nov 29. PMID: 31784482.

Veitch Z, Zer A, Loong H, Salah S, Masood M, Gupta A, Bradbury PA, Hogg D, Wong A, Kandel R, Charames GS, Abdul Razak AR. A phase II study of ENMD-2076 in advanced soft tissue sarcoma (STS). Sci Rep. 2019 May 14;9(1):7390. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-43222-6. PMID: 31089155; PMCID: PMC6517396.

Mighton C, Charames GS, Wang M, Zakoor KR, Wong A, Shickh S, Watkins N, Lebo MS, Bombard Y, Lerner-Ellis J. Variant classification changes over time in BRCA1 and BRCA2. Genet Med. 2019 Oct;21(10):2248-2254. doi: 10.1038/s41436-019-0493-2. Epub 2019 Apr 11. Erratum in: Genet Med. 2019 May 2;: PMID: 30971832.

Dimitrakopoulos L, Prassas I, Sieuwerts AM, Diamandis EP, Martens JWM, Charames GS. Proteome-wide onco-proteogenomic somatic variant identification in ER-positive breast cancer. Clin Biochem. 2019 Apr;66:63-75. doi: 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2019.01.005. Epub 2019 Jan 23. PMID: 30684468.

Watkins NA, Charames GS. Implementing Next-Generation Sequencing in Clinical Practice. J Appl Lab Med. 2018 Sep 1;3(2):338-341. doi: 10.1373/jalm.2017.025791. PMID: 33636945.

Diaz PL, Furfari A, Wan BA, Lam H, Charames G, Drost L, Fefekos A, Ohearn S, Blake A, Asthana R, Chow E, DeAngelis C. Predictive biomarkers of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: a review. Biomark Med. 2018 Aug;12(8):907-916. doi: 10.2217/bmm-2017-0427. Epub 2018 Jul 25. PMID: 30044129.

Dickson BC, Swanson D, Charames GS, Fletcher CD, Hornick JL. Epithelioid fibrous histiocytoma: molecular characterization of ALK fusion partners in 23 cases. Mod Pathol. 2018 May;31(5):753-762. doi: 10.1038/modpathol.2017.191. Epub 2018 Jan 12. PMID: 29327718.

Furfari A, Wan BA, Ding K, Wong A, Zhu L, Bezjak A, Wong R, Wilson CF, DeAngelis C, Azad A, Chow E, Charames GS. Genetic biomarkers associated with pain flare and dexamethasone response following palliative radiotherapy in patients with painful bone metastases. Ann Palliat Med. 2017 Dec;6(Suppl 2):S240-S247. doi: 10.21037/apm.2017.09.04. Epub 2017 Sep 20. PMID: 29156912.

Furfari A, Wan BA, Ding K, Wong A, Zhu L, Bezjak A, Wong R, Wilson CF, DeAngelis C, Azad A, Chow E, Charames GS. Genetic biomarkers associated with changes in quality of life and pain following palliative radiotherapy in patients with bone metastases. Ann Palliat Med. 2017 Dec;6(Suppl 2):S248-S256. doi: 10.21037/apm.2017.09.01. Epub 2017 Sep 28. PMID: 29156910.

Furfari A, Wan BA, Ding K, Wong A, Zhu L, Bezjak A, Wong R, Wilson CF, DeAngelis C, Azad A, Chow E, Charames GS. Genetic biomarkers associated with response to palliative radiotherapy in patients with painful bone metastases. Ann Palliat Med. 2017 Dec;6(Suppl 2):S233-S239. doi: 10.21037/apm.2017.09.03. Epub 2017 Oct 10. PMID: 29156909.

Dimitrakopoulos L, Prassas I, Diamandis EP, Charames GS. Onco-proteogenomics: Multi-omics level data integration for accurate phenotype prediction. Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci. 2017 Sep;54(6):414-432. doi: 10.1080/10408363.2017.1384446. Epub 2017 Oct 12. PMID: 29025326.

Lebo MS, Zakoor KR, Chun K, Speevak MD, Waye JS, McCready E, Parboosingh JS, Lamont RE, Feilotter H, Bosdet I, Tucker T, Young S, Karsan A, Charames GS, Agatep R, Spriggs EL, Chisholm C, Vasli N, Daoud H, Jarinova O, Tomaszewski R, Hume S, Taylor S, Akbari MR, Lerner-Ellis J; Canadian Open Genetics Repository Working Group. Data sharing as a national quality improvement program: reporting on BRCA1 and BRCA2 variant-interpretation comparisons through the Canadian Open Genetics Repository (COGR). Genet Med. 2018 Mar;20(3):294-302. doi: 10.1038/gim.2017.80. Epub 2017 Jul 20. PMID: 28726806.

Dimitrakopoulos L, Prassas I, Berns EMJJ, Foekens JA, Diamandis EP, Charames GS. Variant peptide detection utilizing mass spectrometry: laying the foundations for proteogenomic identification and validation. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2017 Aug 28;55(9):1291-1304. doi: 10.1515/cclm-2016-0947. PMID: 28157690.

Wang M, Aldubayan S, Connor AA, Wong B, Mcnamara K, Khan T, Semotiuk K, Khalouei S, Holter S, Aronson M, Cohen Z, Gallinger S, Charames G, Pollett A, Lerner-Ellis J. Genetic testing for Lynch syndrome in the province of Ontario. Cancer. 2016 Jun 1;122(11):1672-9. doi: 10.1002/cncr.29950. Epub 2016 Mar 28. PMID: 27019099.

Finch A, Wang M, Fine A, Atri L, Khalouei S, Pupavac M, Rosen B, Eisen A, Elser C, Charames G, Metcalfe K, Chang MC, Narod SA, Lerner-Ellis J. Genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 in the Province of Ontario. Clin Genet. 2016 Mar;89(3):304-11. doi: 10.1111/cge.12647. Epub 2015 Aug 31. PMID: 26219728.

Lerner-Ellis J, Wang M, White S, Lebo MS; Canadian Open Genetics Repository Group. Canadian Open Genetics Repository (COGR): a unified clinical genomics database as a community resource for standardising and sharing genetic interpretations. J Med Genet. 2015 Jul;52(7):438-45. doi: 10.1136/jmedgenet-2014-102933. Epub 2015 Apr 22. PMID: 25904639; PMCID: PMC4501169.

Shlien A, Campbell BB, de Borja R, Alexandrov LB, Merico D, Wedge D, Van Loo P, Tarpey PS, Coupland P, Behjati S, Pollett A, Lipman T, Heidari A, Deshmukh S, Avitzur N, Meier B, Gerstung M, Hong Y, Merino DM, Ramakrishna M, Remke M, Arnold R, Panigrahi GB, Thakkar NP, Hodel KP, Henninger EE, Göksenin AY, Bakry D, Charames GS, Druker H, Lerner-Ellis J, Mistry M, Dvir R, Grant R, Elhasid R, Farah R, Taylor GP, Nathan PC, Alexander S, Ben-Shachar S, Ling SC, Gallinger S, Constantini S, Dirks P, Huang A, Scherer SW, Grundy RG, Durno C, Aronson M, Gartner A, Meyn MS, Taylor MD, Pursell ZF, Pearson CE, Malkin D, Futreal PA, Stratton MR, Bouffet E, Hawkins C, Campbell PJ, Tabori U; Biallelic Mismatch Repair Deficiency Consortium. Combined hereditary and somatic mutations of replication error repair genes result in rapid onset of ultra-hypermutated cancers. Nat Genet. 2015 Mar;47(3):257-62. doi: 10.1038/ng.3202. Epub 2015 Feb 2. PMID: 25642631.

Connor AA, Katzov-Eckert H, Whelan T, Aronson M, Lau L, Marshall C, Charames GS, Pollett A, Gallinger S, Lerner-Ellis J. Identification of a novel MSH6 germline variant in a family with multiple gastro-intestinal malignancies by next generation sequencing. Fam Cancer. 2015 Mar;14(1):69-75. doi: 10.1007/s10689-014-9765-9. PMID: 25380764.

Appointments

Director and Head, Advanced Molecular Diagnostics, Pathology and Lab Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital

Associate Professor, Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto

Associate Member, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System