Canadian Gene Cure Foundation
Foundation Canadienne Géne Cure 

About Dr. Charles Scriver

Charles Robert Scriver, M.D.C.M., CC, GOQ, FRSC, FRS (born November 7, 1930) is an eminent Canadian pediatrician and biochemical geneticist. Dr. Scriver made many important contributions to our knowledge of inborn errors of metabolism. He led the establishment of a nationwide newborn metabolic screening program (Phenylketonuria or PKU test as it is more commonly known) that is considered a landmark in applying the results of research to children's health across the nation. Earlier in his career, after discovering the hereditary forms of Rickets in children, he lobbied for the addition of vitamin D to milk in Quebec, eradicating the cause of the genetic disease.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Scriver graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1951 and from the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University in 1955. He was appointed to the Department of Paediatrics at McGill and as a Markle scholar in 1961, becoming a professor in pediatrics in 1969. He held the Samuel Rudin Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Columbia University from 1979 to 1980. He is the Alva professor Emeritus of Human Genetics in the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University. Among his many awards, he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1985 and in 2010 he was awarded the prestigious Pollin Prize for Pediatric Research. He and his wife, Esther, have four children.