Charles Scriver

Charles Robert Scriver (1930 to 2023) was a Canadian pediatrician and biochemical geneticist, born in Montreal. He took his medical degree at McGill University in 1955 and spent his career in the university's Department of Paediatrics, becoming a professor of pediatrics in 1969 and later Alva Professor Emeritus of Human Genetics. His work centred on inborn errors of metabolism and led to the creation of a Canada-wide newborn metabolic screening program. In 1969 he found that rickets could be caused by vitamin D deficiency among poorer children who drank bottled milk instead of infant formula, and he persuaded Quebec suppliers to add vitamin D to milk, after which the rate of rickets fell. He also helped shape the scientific and ethical policies of the international Human Genome Project and co-edited the multi-volume textbook The Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease. His honours included the McLaughlin Medal of the Royal Society of Canada, fellowship of the Royal Society and induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. This entry records his work as history and is not medical advice.