Biography:James R. Eshleman

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Short description: American physician-scientist

James R. Eshleman is an American physician‑scientist, professor of pathology and oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a cancer researcher[1] known for his work on pancreatic cancer genetics, molecular pathology, and gene‑targeted therapies.[2][3] He also serves as Associate Director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory and holds the Ralph H. Hruban, M.D. Professorship in Pancreatic Cancer Research at Johns Hopkins.[4][5]

Education

Eshleman received a Bachelor of Arts in Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1981.[4] He subsequently earned both his M.D. and Ph.D. in Anatomy & Cell Biology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1988.[2] He completed clinical training including an internship in internal medicine, followed by a residency in clinical pathology, and a fellowship in transfusion medicine at Penn and Internal medicine internship at Temple university.[6]

Career

Academic career

After his clinical and postdoctoral training, Eshleman held faculty positions at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.[2] In 1997, he joined the Johns Hopkins Department of Pathology as an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory. He advanced to Associate Professor in 2002 and full Professor of Pathology and Oncology in 2010.[7]

At Johns Hopkins, he has also served in leadership roles including Interim Director of Gastrointestinal Pathology from 2015 to 2016 and, beginning in 2022, as the inaugural holder of the Ralph H. Hruban Professorship in Pancreatic Cancer Research.[4]

Research

Eshleman’s research spans basic and translational cancer science with emphasis on pancreatic cancer genetics, personalized approaches to therapy, and molecular diagnostics.[8][9]

His early work demonstrated that microsatellite instability colon cancers have elevated mutation rates (mutator phenotype cancers),[10] which is the basis of targeting these cancers with immunotherapy.[11]  He showed that frameshift mutation frequency tightly correlated with the length of mononucleotide repeats.[12] He later focused on pancreatic cancer, developing technologies to detect rare tumor DNA mutations and integrating genetic information for improved clinical cancer detection and treatment.[13]

Eshleman played a role in identifying genes associated with familial pancreatic cancer and in efforts to map the genetic evolution of tumors.[14]

More recently, his laboratory has adapted the CRISPR‑Cas9 gene editing tool[15] to selectively kill cancer cells by targeting somatic mutations present in tumor genomes.[3] His group has demonstrated that inducing multiple double‑strand DNA breaks in cancer cells overwhelms repair mechanisms and leads to cancer cell death.[16]

Eshleman’s group has developed sensitive molecular assays to detect pancreatic tumor DNA, including technologies to identify mutations in body fluids and to profile individualized chemosensitivity for optimizing therapy.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Maitra, Anirban. "New method to personalize chemotherapy drug selection" (in en). https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/new-method-to-personalize-chemotherapy-drug-selection.html. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rosenzweig, Allison (2011-10-27). "Researcher Story: James Eshleman, MD, PhD" (in en). https://pancan.org/stories/researchers/researcher-story-james-eshleman-md-phd/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Palmgren, Gorm. "News: CRISPR Targets Pancreatic Cancer Mutations" (in en). https://crisprmedicinenews.com/news/crispr-targets-pancreatic-cancer-mutations/. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Hruban, Ralph H. (2016-04-26). "Meet the Scientists" (in en). https://jcmfoundation.org/research-development/. 
  5. ↑ Goldman, Sol. "Landmark DNA Study Finds Easier Way to Diagnose Pancreatic Cysts | Newswise" (in en). https://www.newswise.com/articles/landmark-dna-study-finds-easier-way-to-diagnose-pancreatic-cysts. 
  6. ↑ "James Richard Eshleman Jr. MD Pathology•Baltimore, MD Blood Banking & Transfusion Medicine, Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology Professor of Pathology, Professor of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Associate Director, Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory" (in en). https://www.doximity.com/pub/james-eshleman-md. 
  7. ↑ "New method to personalize chemotherapy drug selection" (in en). https://healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/healthcare-in-europe.com/en/news/new-method-to-personalize-chemotherapy-drug-selection.html. 
  8. ↑ "Protein 'switches' could turn cancer cells into tiny chemotherapy factories" (in en). https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/813841. 
  9. ↑ Zheng, Lei. "Nerves could be key to pancreatic cancer spread". https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2019/08/nerves-could-be-key-to-pancreatic-cancer-spread. 
  10. ↑ Eshleman, James R; Donover, P Scott; Littman, Susan J; Swinler, Sandra E; Li, Guo-Min; Lutterbaugh, James D; Willson, James KV; Modrich, Paul et al. (1998-03-05). "Increased transversions in a novel mutator colon cancer cell line". Oncogene 16 (9): 1125–1130. doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1201629. ISSN 0950-9232. PMID 9528854. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1201629. 
  11. ↑ Le, Dung T.; Uram, Jennifer N.; Wang, Hao; Bartlett, Bjarne R.; Kemberling, Holly; Eyring, Aleksandra D.; Skora, Andrew D.; Luber, Brandon S. et al. (2015-06-25). "PD-1 Blockade in Tumors with Mismatch-Repair Deficiency". The New England Journal of Medicine 372 (26): 2509–2520. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1500596. ISSN 1533-4406. PMID 26028255. 
  12. ↑ Eshleman, J. R.; Markowitz, S. D.; Donover, P. S.; Lang, E. Z.; Lutterbaugh, J. D.; Li, G. M.; Longley, M.; Modrich, P. et al. (1996-04-04). "Diverse hypermutability of multiple expressed sequence motifs present in a cancer with microsatellite instability". Oncogene 12 (7): 1425–1432. ISSN 0950-9232. PMID 8622858. 
  13. ↑ "Study finds genes associated with improved survival for pancreatic cancer patients" (in en). https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150820160227.htm. 
  14. ↑ "Comprehensive Genetic Blueprints Revealed For Lethal Pancreatic, Brain Cancers" (in en). https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080904145100.htm. 
  15. ↑ "'Personalized' genome sequencing reveals coding error in gene for inherited pancreatic cancer" (in en). https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/775975. 
  16. ↑ Teh, Selina Shiqing K; Bowland, Kirsten; Halper-Stromberg, Eitan; Kotwal, Akhil; Bennett, Alexis; Skaist, Alyza; Tang, Jacqueline; Cai, Fidel et al. (2024). "CRISPR-Cas9 for selective targeting of somatic mutations in pancreatic cancers". NAR Cancer 6 (2). doi:10.1093/narcan/zcae028. ISSN 2632-8674. PMID 38915758. 
  17. ↑ Groot, Vincent P.; Mosier, Stacy; Javed, Ammar A.; Teinor, Jonathan A.; Gemenetzis, Georgios; Ding, Ding; Haley, Lisa M.; Yu, Jun et al. (2023-03-31). Data from Circulating Tumor DNA as a Clinical Test in Resected Pancreatic Cancer. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.c.6528558.v1. https://doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.c.6528558.v1. Retrieved 2026-03-06. 



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