Laurence S Harbige was born and educated in London. His primary research interest is in the role of fatty acids and related lipids in immune function, inflammation and autoimmune disease. From 1982 to 1991 he worked in the Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition (Prof MA Crawford) Nuffield Laboratories of Comparative Medicine (Zoological Society of London) on essential fatty acids and antioxidants in animal and human biology. At the Nuffield Laboratories he began studies on fatty acids in multiple sclerosis and experimental autoimmunity, receiving his PhD from Brunel University. In 1992 he moved to take up a Research Fellow position in the Department of Immunology (Prof DC Dumonde) United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, University of London (now King‘s College London) where he undertook research on autoimmunity and fatty acids and lectured undergraduate medical students. In 1997 he joined the School of Chemical and Life Sciences, University of Greenwich as a Senior Lecturer and appointed Reader in Nutrition Metabolism and Immunology in 1999. In addition to teaching, with his research group and collaborators he continued work on fatty acids in immune function, inflammation and metabolism including clinical trials in multiple sclerosis (MS) and type 2 diabetes (DM2). He also has research interests in probiotics and intracellular parasites and in the role of cytokines in MS and DM2. In 2017 he moved to London Metropolitan University and is currently a visiting lecturer at King’s College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr Harbige has over 100 scientific publications, is a Senior Editor for Journal of Inflammation and a regular peer reviewer for over a dozen international scientific journals. He has acted as expert adviser and grant reviewer for the MRC South Africa, MRC UK, BBSRC, FSA and UK medical research charities including the Wellcome Trust. He has served on conference and specialist committees of the British Society for Immunology (BSI), Nutrition Society, International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL), International Society for Immunonutrition (ISIN) and was co-president of the XI ISIN International Conference on Immunonutrition 2018. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, Higher Education Academy and the Royal Society of Medicine.