Dr. Stephen Scherer

BSc' 87 (Biology)

Dr. Stephen Scherer, PhD and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC), is Director of The Centre for Applied Genomics at The Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto. His research examines the composition of the human genome for studies of genetic disease. His recent work led to the discovery and characterization of copy number and structural variation in the human genome. His group also examines the role genetics has in autism.

Long-standing endeavors include the study of human chromosome 7 as a model of the chromosomal basis of disease, and building genomics infrastructure to facilitate biomedical research in Canada. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles (cited >12,000 times) and won numerous awards including the 2004 Steacie Prize in the Natural Sciences, an International Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholarship and the 5 million dollar Premier's Summit Award for Medical Research.

He sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of Combimatrix Diagnostics and Autism Speaks, and he is on the Board of Trustees of Genome Canada and the Human Genome Organization (HUGO). He holds the GlaxoSmithKline-Canadian Institutes of Health Research Endowed Chair in Genetics and Genomics and is a Scholar of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. In 2007 he was given the University of Waterloo's first Science Distinguished Alumni Award.