A postdoctoral research fellow in the school of medicine, Shay Laps, filed a federal lawsuit on July 10 against the University and his lab director, Danny Chou, alleging anti-semitism and anti-Israeli discrimination. 

Laps, who is Israeli, claimed Chou fabricated a false sexual harassment investigation against him without due cause, prompting Laps to leave the country as a result of his terminated immigration visa.

The suit alleges that Laps’ colleagues at the Danny Chou Lab — which studies chemical biology, protein engineering and structure biology — created a “hostile work environment” in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks because of his Jewish and Israeli background, “pushing him off campus [and] threatening his career with a dangerous lie,” according to the lawsuit.

“Stanford takes any allegation of antisemitism very seriously,” University spokesperson Dee Mostofi wrote in an email statement to The Daily. “In this instance and based on all the allegations that Dr. Laps reported directly to the institution, a thorough internal investigation found that they were unsubstantiated.”

Chou redirected all requests for comment to the University’s office of communication, who denied the allegations made in the complaint.

Talia Nissimyan of Cohen Williams LLP, one of the lawyers representing Laps, called the incident“one of the more extreme cases of retaliation I’ve ever seen,” in an interview with The Daily.

Represented by attorneys from Brandeis Center and Cohen Williams LLP, Laps accused the University and Chou of 17 complaints, including discrimination, retaliation, defamation and breach of implied contract.

In early January of 2025, the University concluded its initial investigation of discrimination, finding “the information gathered does not support that Dr. Laps was discriminated against because he was Jewish or Israeli.” 

A few days prior, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) had notified Laps that his research proposal had been granted, awarding a three-year fellowship and a grant totaling $283,230 to allow him to continue his research at Chou’s lab. 

The next month, a second investigation opened following Laps’ claims of retaliation against the first one, planning to determine whether Chou retaliated by ending Laps’ postdoc appointment as of March 31 and refusing to support the JDRF grant. This investigation concluded in April, with Stanford School of Medicine Dean Linda Boxer writing to Laps that “Dr. Chou’s conduct did not violate a university policy.”

In addition to Chou’s alleged retaliation, Laps also claimed that the University retaliated against him following his second suit. At the time of the second investigation, Laps alleged that the University submitted activation materials and wrote a letter to JDRF to amend the award from supporting three years of research to one year.

“What is really surprising about this case is Stanford’s involvement in what happened, both knowledge, and what was going on on campus generally… and what happened to Dr. Laps,” Nissimyan said.

On Feb. 26, Laps ended his postdoc appointment, feeling “forced by Stanford and Dr. Chou’s behavior,” according to the complaint. Upon the termination of Laps’ employment, the University informed Laps that he could legally remain in the U.S. on his J-1 visa for 30 more days, causing him to leave the country. 

In the complaint, Laps also alleged that on April 1, 2024 – his first day in the lab as a postdoctoral appointee – the lab’s research assistant, Terra Lin, “instructed him never to speak with her in person.” Lin then proceeded to tell Laps he wasn’t welcome to sit with his colleagues at lunch, redirected her trash duties to him and delayed or “snapped at him” when Laps needed to order materials.

The complaint alleges that this escalated to Lin tampering with Laps’ research due to his Jewish and Israeli background, reflecting a University-wide trend of anti-Israeli sentiment. Since Hamas invaded and attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking more than 250 Israelis hostage, students have conducted multiple protests on campus, leading to the arrest of 12 pro-Palestinian protestors last June who now face felony charges for breaking into the president’s office, a 120-day pro-Palestinian Sit-In To Stop Genocide and a hunger strike to advocate for Palestine.

“Dr. Laps also observed that Stanford was doing next to nothing to counter the hatred being sown by protestors on campus that it euphemistically attributed to ‘deep concern and passionate debate’ regarding ‘events in the Middle East,’” according to the lawsuit.

In July 2024, Laps alleged that he informed Chou of Lin’s alleged discrimination, but noted in his lawsuit that no steps were taken in response. The next month, Laps claimed that Chou called a meeting with Laps to inform him that “a serious complaint of sexual harassment had been made against Dr. Laps and that a Title IX investigation into Dr. Laps was now ongoing,” as stated in the complaint. 

In the meeting, Chou allegedly encouraged Laps to leave the lab and avoid an investigation. Shortly after, Laps claimed he filed three similar complaints with University administration, believing he was being discriminated against because of his Jewish and Israeli identity.

Laps stated that he contacted the Title IX department directly for more information regarding the complaint. In response, Outreach and Student Resources Manager Miranda Tuttle informed both Laps and Chou in September that the Title IX office never received a complaint about Laps, and he was not under investigation. 

According to the complaint, the Title IX office informed Laps and Chou that “Dr. Laps had never been found to have violated any Stanford policy and remained in good standing as he always had been,” and also that “Dr. Laps was protected from retaliation and intimidation going forward.”

In October, the School of Medicine opened an official investigation in response to Laps’ discrimination complaint, which allegedly prompted Chou to retaliate by “firing Dr. Laps, locking him out of the lab, attempting to create a false record, and defaming Dr. Laps to colleagues,” according to the suit.

The complaint states that Chou “directed Dr. Laps to immediately stop his research, and divert all of Dr. Laps’ attention to finding another lab” and told colleagues that Laps’ absence was due to a “legal licensing” issue with Laps’ work. The lawsuit claims that Chou also attempted to withdraw himself as Laps’ mentor in an application for a three-year research fellowship from the JDRF, which the pair applied for in June of 2024 and would have run through 2028.

Laps then informed Stanford administrators, including University president Jonathan Levin ’94 and School of Medicine Dean Lloyd Minor, of Chou’s actions, requesting another investigation into the alleged retaliation.

The University did not respond to requests for comment on Chou’s allegations of discrimination, retaliation and defamation.