An Israeli postdoctoral researcher is suing Stanford University, claiming he was forced to leave the United States after being subjected to anti-Israel and antisemitic discrimination while working in a university lab.
Dr. Shay Laps, a chemist specializing in protein synthesis, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Northern California. He alleges that his experience at Stanford’s School of Medicine in 2024 became hostile shortly after he joined the Smart Insulin Research Lab under Prof. Danny Chao.
Laps was recruited in April 2024 following a months-long selection process and a personal recommendation from a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He says he was initially praised as an “exceptional scientist” by the hosting lab.
According to the complaint, the lab became “a hostile zone for Israelis” almost immediately. In their first encounter, a research assistant allegedly told him, “don’t talk to me,” and later excluded him from team meals, assigned him menial tasks such as taking out the trash, and delayed his access to research materials.
Laps claims the assistant, identified as Tara Lynn, ultimately sabotaged his work on what he described as a promising breakthrough in smart insulin—an experimental compound aimed at transforming diabetes treatment. He alleges she tampered with samples to create misleading results, then convinced him to destroy them, an act he describes as a “targeted attempt to frame him for research fraud.”
Instead of investigating the incident, the lawsuit states, Chao summoned Laps to a meeting and told him he was under investigation for sexual harassment. Laps was advised to leave the country to avoid visa issues. He later discovered no investigation had been opened and that Stanford officials were unaware of the allegations.
Laps said he appealed to Stanford President Jonathan Levin and School of Medicine Dean Lloyd Minor, but received no response. A prestigious research grant he had applied for was also suspended without explanation. He resigned and left the U.S. in October 2024.
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Stanford has previously acknowledged what it called a “widespread and ongoing antisemitic climate” on campus, particularly in science departments. A public report released in May 2024 documented repeated harassment of Jewish students, suppression of complaints, and institutional denial of accountability.
The U.S. Department of Education has opened an investigation into Stanford on allegations of religious and national-origin discrimination, though no public actions have been announced.
In a statement, Stanford said it “takes all complaints of antisemitism seriously,” and that in Laps’ case, “an internal review found no basis for his claims.”