Events

Chemistry-Enabled Biological Discovery

Presented by Prof. Lairson

Abstract:
Luke Lairson received his B. Sc. in Chemistry & Biochemistry from the University of Guelph and his Ph.D. in Chemistry, as a Michael Smith Graduate Trainee, from the University of British Columbia for work performed with Prof. Stephan G. Withers. He was a Royal Society visiting scientist in the laboratory of Prof. Benjamin G. Davis at the University of Oxford, prior to conducting postdoctoral studies as a CIHR Fellow in the laboratory of Prof. Peter G. Schultz at The Scripps Research Institute. Prof. Lairson started his independent career as a Principal Investigator at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation and was then a founding Principal Investigator and Director of High Throughput Discovery at the California Institute for Biomedical Research. In 2017, his laboratory moved to the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research group uses chemical biology-based approaches, involving cell-based phenotypic screening coupled to target identification and mechanism of action studies, to investigate cell fate- and cell state-determining processes that play causative roles in human disease biology. Research in the Lairson laboratory is focused on applying this approach to: 1) study and modulate remyelination and oligodendrocyte function, 2) study and modulate cGAS-STING pathway signal transduction, and 3) target glioblastoma cancer stem cells in a cell type-selective manner.