Henry Erlich

Bio

Henry Erlich is an Advisory Board Member with the Human Rights Center. He is a Senior Scientist at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute. He received his BA from Harvard University and his Ph.D from the University of Washington. Erlich continued his postdoctoral work in microbial genetics at Princeton University and immunogenetics at Stanford University. Since the early 1980s, Erlich has been well-known in the forensic and medical communities for pioneering the development and  application of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology for amplifying specific DNA segments. His lab performed the first DNA case in the US and, in 1988, the first DNA exoneration. Erlich was the Director of the Department of Human Genetics and Vice-President of Discovery Research for Roche Molecular Systems, Inc until 2013. He is currently a Senior Scientist at Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute. He has published > 450 articles and is the recipient of numerous awards.