Charles R. Cantor

Ph.D., Scientific Advisory Board Member

is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences (1988) and is currently on leave from Boston University (Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology). Founder and CSO (since 1998) of Sequenom, Inc. His main areas of expertise: biophysics, molecular genetics, molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics.

His scientific interests include mass-spectrometry, prenatal diagnostics, in vivo RNA detection and epigenetics. He made important contributions to understanding of DNA-protein interactions and pioneered physical mapping of whole chromosomes. Invented (1984) and developed pulse field gel electrophoresis for analysis of very large DNA molecules.

He is also founder of SelectX Pharmaceuticals and DiThera. His copious awards include Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry (1978), Biochemical Analysis Prize of the German Society of Clinical Chemistry (1988), ISCO Award for Advances in Biochemical Instrumentation (1989), H.A. Sober Award (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1990), and E.M. Gray Award (Biophysical Society, 2000). (Co)authored several books (including the 3-volume textbook, Biophysical Chemistry) and more than 450 per-reviewed papers, as well as more than 60 patents.

He received his BA from Columbia University in 1963 and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966.