Frederick Roth

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  Canada Excellence Research Chair in Integrative Biology

  University of Toronto

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• “Professor Roth is at the forefront of the race to develop new tools to unlock and make use of the wealth of DNA and protein information around the world. He is precisely the class of researcher we hoped the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program would enable us to attract to Canada.”

  ― David Naylor, past president, University of Toronto

• Genomic Technologies for Mapping Pathways and Understanding Diseases

  Imagine a future where people routinely read their own genomes to explore their individuality and their health. It may sound like science fiction, but scientists today are already able to read the basic DNA blueprint for any species we care to study. The challenge is that the genome sequence is like an encyclopedia written in an alien language, and our ability to reveal DNA sequences has greatly outpaced our capacity to understand them.

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  Building on a decade of outstanding innovation in experimental and computational genomics at Harvard University, Frederick Roth, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Integrative Biology, is helping us better understand what genes do and how they impact our health.

  Working with his team at the University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital, Roth is exploring new ways to harness technology for DNA sequencing. They also using computational methods to analyze and integrate the results of diverse, large-scale experiments, and have developed a way to find and prioritize genes that are most likely responsible for certain diseases so that research time and money can be best allocated.

  Roth’s work will add to the leading-edge systems biology research team already in place at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute and the University of Toronto. His team includes experimental technologists and computational experts, and operates by forming collaborations at between experts in technology and those in biomedical research. Roth’s research will help keep Canada at the forefront of biomedical research, develop highly qualified personnel in this growing field, and contribute innovative products and intellectual property to Canada’s economy.

• Biography

  Before becoming Canada Excellence Research Chair in Integrative Biology, Frederick Roth was an associate professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School.

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  Roth completed his PhD in biophysics at Harvard University, after studying both physics and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. After receiving his PhD, he gained experience in applied biotechnology as a scientist at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. He continues to be a fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and a member of the Center for Cancer Systems Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.

  With numerous publications to their credit, Roth’s team has contributed work to leading journals such as Science, Nature and Cell. Roth has served as an Associate Editor for Bioinformatics, Public Library of Science: Computational Biology, and G3:Genes, Genomes, Genetics.

  Roth’s group continues to focus on developing technology to more efficiently relate genes to the functioning of living systems and human disease.

• Related Sites

  Roth Laboratory