| Charles Scriver | |
| Birth Name: | Charles Robert Scriver |
| Birth Date: | 7 November 1930 |
| Birth Place: | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Death Place: | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Field: | Pediatrics Biochemical genetics |
| Work Institutions: | McGill University |
| Alma Mater: | McGill University |
| Known For: | Inborn errors of metabolism |
Charles Robert Scriver (November 7, 1930 – April 7, 2023) was a Canadian pediatrician and biochemical geneticist. His work focused on inborn errors of metabolism and led in establishing a Canada-wide newborn metabolic screening program.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Scriver graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1951 and from the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University in 1955.
Scriver was appointed to the Department of Paediatrics at McGill and as a Markle scholar in 1961, becoming a professor in pediatrics in 1969. He was the Samuel Rudin Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Columbia University from 1979 to 1980 and was the Alva professor Emeritus of Human Genetics in the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University.
In 1969 he discovered that rickets could be caused by vitamin D deficiency among poorer children who drank bottled milk instead of infant formula. He persuaded Quebec suppliers to add vitamin D to their milk, leading to a decrease in the rate of rickets.[1]
Scriver played a critical role in developing scientific and ethical policies associated with the international Human Genome Project - created to decode more than three billion DNA base pairs and identify all human genes.[2] [3]
Scriver was co-editor of the authoritative multi-volume textbook entitled The Metabolic & Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease, published by McGraw-Hill.
Scriver died in Montreal on April 7, 2023, at the age of 92.[4]