Rosenthal received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel. He was appointed to a scientist at Genentech Inc. in 1988, was promoted to a senior scientist in 1992 and then to a VP level, executive staff scientist and a permanent member of Genentech Research Review Committee in 1996 were he Initiated the research program that led to the development and approval of Erivedge® (vismodegib)‎.