Robert Screaton received his undergraduate and graduate training at McGill University in Montreal, Canada (1998), and pursued post-doctoral studies at the Burnham Institute (1999-2002) and the Salk Institute (2002-2005) in San Diego, California. Dr. Screaton joined the Apoptosis Research Centre and the University of Ottawa in July 2005. He is the recipient of awards such as  the Canada Research Chair In Apoptotic Signaling, Tier II (2006-2011) and Ontario Early Researcher Award (2006-2011). 

The focus of the work in the Screaton laboratory is to identify the molecular machinery used by cells to respond to extracellular cues. 

Islet Biology: Current work in the lab is directed towards understanding how insulin-producing beta cells respond to glucose and cAMP signals. We employ biochemical, cell biological, proteomic and functional genomic approaches to identify novel gene products and signal transduction mechanisms that are involved in beta cell biology. We then generate animal models to test the role of these genes in islet function and glucose metabolism in vivo.

Kinomics: Protein phosphorylation regulates virtually all cellular events. Protein kinases and their target proteins control central cell behaviours as proliferation, cell growth, differentiation, innate immunity, and cell survival and death and are of central importance both to basic research and to disease treatment. Identifying kinase:substrate pairs, critical nodes in signal transduction pathways, represents a major challenge for understanding how information transfer takes place within a cell. We have developed a kinase screening platform to permit identification of kinase:substrate pairs, and used this to elucidate novel pathways involved in glucose sensing.  We have also applied this approach to a wide range of biological processes, including mitochondrial dynamics, phagocytosis, axon guidance, and stem cell determination. If you have a protein of interest that you would like to have screened, please contact us by email

Download sample submission form

Cell based screening: We employ a state-of-the-art robotic cell based screening facility at the Apoptosis Research Centre to perform functional genetic screens in mammalian cells to identify novel genes involved in cell function and survival. We use the following libraries:

Overexpression screens:

RNA interference screens: