Dr. Lairmore began contributing fundamental knowledge to the scientific literature while earning his Ph.D. degree in 1987 from Colorado State University where he developed one of the first models of AIDS-associated pediatric pneumonia.

Some of his early accomplishments included the first description of the close relationship between retrovirus macrophage replication and pathogenicity, and documentation of inflammatory mediators of virus-associated lung damage.

Soon after his appointment to the National Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia in 1987, he developed a reference laboratory for the identification of human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV-1), the first described human retrovirus. The virus causes a highly aggressive human cancer and is associated with a variety of immune-mediated diseases.

At the CDC he quickly became nationally recognized for his scientific work and his laboratory was selected by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help establish CDC/FDA approved policies for HTLV-1 blood donor screening in the United States. His research characterized unique determinants recognized by patients using synthetic peptides and he developed molecular methods to identify new viral strains. This lead to his discovery in 1989, of HTLV-2 infection in a native Indian population in Central America, which was subsequently recognized as an endemic infection among American Indian populations throughout North and South America. Dr. Lairmore has authored or co-authored over 140 scientific publications. Recently he has used this tool to characterize the HTLV-1 genome and describe the function of two novel proteins that play important roles in viral infectivity and T cell activation.

Dr. Lairmore has been appointed as a member of numerous National Institutes of Health Study Sections, as an ad hoc reviewer, served on a variety of United States Public Health Service committees, and is the recipient of numerous academic awards, including being recently selected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.