Lab Strategy Review
For research leaders
An independent review of how your research is organised, led and resourced, with clear priorities for the next stage.
You receive a written review and a working session with your leadership team.
Strategy for science-led organisations and the investors who back them
Independent advice on how research is organised, led and backed, grounded in evidence on how breakthroughs happen.
Structure informs function
How something is built decides what it can do. Research published in Nature1 traced the record of Cambridge’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology to deliberate choices about how its science is organised. The same logic holds for a research team, a new therapy and a whole health system.
Before AI
With AI
Gatekeepers and AI
Gatekeepers link research teams to knowledge from outside the organisation. AI opens a second route. Whether it bypasses gatekeepers or makes them more valuable changes how R&D teams should be built.
Familiar components
A new architecture
Nanomedicine as architectural innovation
Nanomedicine combines familiar parts: a drug, a carrier and a targeting ligand. The innovation lies in how they are put together, and firms organised around the old connections can find it hard to see.
How capability builds over time
Gradual or punctuated?
Technologies can improve step by step, or hold steady for long periods and then jump. Which pattern a field follows shapes when to invest, when to wait and what to watch for.
Payers pay for treatment
Payers pay for outcomes
Prevention needs the field to turn
Payers set the field that a health business lines up with. While they pay for treatment, prevention runs against the grain and fades. When they pay for outcomes, the field turns and prevention lines up with everything else. Lasting change starts with what the payer asks for.
Three ways to work with Talis
Research Team Diligence
For investors
An assessment of the scientific team behind an investment and how well it is set up to turn science into a company.
You receive a concise memo for your investment committee, before you commit.
Decision Forum
For boards
A one-day senior working session on a single strategic question, moving from evidence to a decision.
You receive a decision framework and agreed next steps.
The questions clients bring
“Is this the team that can turn the science into a company?”
“How should we organise our research to make breakthroughs more likely?”
“How should our R&D teams change as AI reshapes discovery?”
“How should we structure and govern this spin-out as it grows?”
Dr Luka Gebel
Luka’s study of Cambridge’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology, written with Chander Velu and Antonio Vidal-Puig, was featured on the cover of Nature in 2024: “The strategy behind one of the most successful labs in the world”.
- Role
- Assistant Professor in Strategy & Entrepreneurship, UCL Global Business School for Health
- Research
- Gatekeepers and knowledge absorption in R&D teams, and the competitive effects of AI and nanomedicine
- Training
- PhD, King’s Business School, with an appointment at the LSE Department of Management
- Recognition
- Named in Capital magazine’s 40 under 40. Author of Oxford Handbook chapters.
How engagements work
Scope
The question, scope and fee are agreed before work starts.
Assess
Interviews, data and research evidence on what works in comparable organisations.
Decide
A senior working session turns the findings into a recommendation.
Follow through
Optional ongoing advisory or a board role, for a small number of clients.
Every engagement is delivered personally by Dr Gebel, kept confidential, and open to UK and international clients. Engagements are contracted with Talis Advisory Ltd, which is independent of UCL.
Decision-quality judgement at moments of high uncertainty.
To discuss an engagement, write to Luka directly.
luka@talisadvisory.com