Friedberg's research contributions centered on understanding how cells repair and/or tolerate unrepaired damage to DNA and defining the biological consequences of unrepaired DNA damage. He edited and wrote several editions of DNA Repair and Mutagenesis, published by ASM Press.
Friedberg also published several volumes on aspects of the history of molecular biology, including Correcting the Blueprint of Life-An Historical Account of the Discovery of DNA Repair Mechanisms, The Writing Life of James D. Watson, From Rags to Riches-The Phenomenal Rise of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Sydney Brenner: A Biography, A Biography of Paul Berg-The Recombinant DNA Controversy Revisited,Emperor of Enzymes-A Biography of Arthur Kornberg, Biochemist and Nobel Laureate.
Friedberg contributed over 400 papers to the scientific literature, and was Founding Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal DNA Repair.[5][6]
Awards
Rous Whipple Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology (2000)
Learning About Your Genes- A Primer For Non-Biologists, pub. World Scientific Publications, Singapore
The Sabbatical –A Story of Betrayal, pub. United PC Publishers, Fort Myers, FL.
Emperor of Enzymes -- A Biography of Arthur Kornberg, Biochemist and Nobel Laureate, pub. World Scientific, 2016 ISBN9814699802
A Biography of Paul Berg - The Recombinant DNA Controversy Revisited, pub. World Scientific, 2014 ISBN978-981-4569-03-3
Sydney Brenner: A Biography, pub. CSHL Press, September 2010, ISBN0-87969-947-7.
Sydney Brenner: My Life in Science, with Lewis Wolpert, edited by Errol C. Friedberg and Eleanor Lawrence, BioMed Central 2001, ISBN0-9540278-0-9
The Writing Life of James D. Watson, pub. CSHL Press,2005, ISBN0-87969-700-8
From Rags to Riches-The Phenomenal Rise of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Carolina Academic Press,2007, ISBN1-59460-397-9
DNA Repair and Mutagenesis (with G. C. Walker, W. Siede, R. D. Wood, R. A Schultz and T. Ellenberger), pub. ASM Press, 2006, ISBN1-55581-319-4
Cancer Answers-Encouraging Answers to 25 Questions You Were Afraid to Ask WH Freeman, New York, 1992, ISBN0-7167-7023-7