Dr. Luke Lairson studied Biochemistry at the University of Guelph, Canada, and obtained his PhD in Chemistry at the University of British Columbia in 2007, under the supervision of Stephen Withers. He then undertook postdoctoral research with Peter Schultz at Scripps Research, developing expertise in chemical biology, phenotypic screening and stem cell biology.
He later served as a principal investigator at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation and the California Institute for Biomedical Research, where he also served as Director of High Throughput Discovery. He joined the faculty of Scripps Research in 2017, where he was appointed Associate Professor in 2019 and Professor of Chemistry in 2024.
His research uses small molecules to uncover and modulate the mechanisms that determine cellular identity and function. His contributions include the discovery of molecules that promote myelin repair, helping establish a strategy subsequently explored in clinical studies of multiple sclerosis; the development of small molecules that stimulate antitumour immune responses in preclinical models; and the identification of compounds that selectively target brain cancer cells.
He joined IRB Barcelona in 2026 to lead the Chemical Biology and Therapeutics Discovery Research Group. His laboratory combines phenotypic screening with chemical proteomics and mechanistic studies to investigate immune signalling, myelin regeneration and cancer cell states, with the aim of identifying new therapeutic strategies.