Sergey Lukyanov graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1985, majoring in Physiology. In 1986, started working at the Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, rising in the ranks from Research Assistant to Head of Laboratory.
In 1994, he successfully defended his PhD dissertation ‘Cloning of a novel Xenopus homeobox gene XANF-1 by subtractive hybridization,’ which he completed at the Laboratory of Structure and Function of Human Genes under the supervision of Prof. Eugene D. Sverdlov. In 1999, he successfully defended his doctoral (DrSc) disseration ‘Selective suppression of polymerase chain reaction’ at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, advised by Prof. Eugene D. Sverdlov.
In 2003, he became a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Science and became a full Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2011.
In 2010–2014, he received a mega grant from the Russian Government to create a fluorescent bio-imaging laboratory at Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy (now Privolzhsky Research Medical University). This laboratory became the foundation of the NNSMA Biomedical Technology Research Institute. In 2012–2013, served as Acting Assistant to the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation. In 2013–2015, was the Vice Rector of the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University (RNRMU). He became Acting Rector on 29 April 2015 and was elected the Rector of RNRMU in 2016.
Over the course of his work, Lukyanov published more than 180 research papers in Russian and foreign journals (with an h-index of 58 and a ‘sum of times cited’ over 18,000 according to Web of Science) and patented 51 inventions.
In 2006, he was awared the Russian Academy of Sciences Ovchinnikov Prize for outstanding work in physicochemical biology and biotechnology for his paper ‘Fluorescent proteins: finding, investigation and use in biotechnology.’ In 2012, he was awarded the RUSNANOPRIZE Nanotechnology International Prize. In 2015, he was conferred the Russian Federation National Award in science and technology for the development and implementation of a technological complex for the analysis of compound genome structure and functions.