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John Harris was born in Plymouth, in Devon, and attended Devonport Grammar School. John himself would never have described himself as a model student, preferring music over his studies, but developed a fascination with chemistry that led to him choosing to study chemistry at Exeter University. In his early days at Exeter, he met Susan Moorcroft, whom he would subsequently marry and share a happy family life for over forty years.

Following his studies in Exeter, in 1972 John obtained his PhD at Queen Mary College, University of London studying the synthesis of Xanthophylls and reporting the first synthesis of a natural optically-active carotenoid. He then joined the laboratory of Professor Charles Rees FRS, at the University of Liverpool for two years of post-doctoral research working on novel reaction pathways based on nitrogen and sulphur ylids.

In 1974, John joined the then major pharmaceutical company, Wellcome, at their research Laboratories in Beckenham, Kent, as a research medicinal chemist. He rose to Principal Scientist and then Cardiovascular (CV) Therapeutic Area Head alongside his clinical colleague, Prof. John Martin. During this time John worked on prostaglandins (with Sir John Vane's group), various cardiovascular projects (with Sir James Black's group) and established Wellcome's first combinatorial chemistry library group with Dr Paul Doyle.

In 1995, John Left Wellcome, after its acquisition by Glaxo, and the closure of the Wellcome Research laboratories. He and three ex-Wellcome colleagues, David Stone, Sally Rose and Paul Doyle created a new chemistry contract research company called BioFocus, which was listed on AIM and initially based at Sittingbourne, Kent.

The BioFocus founders piloted a model of a pre-clinical contract research organization while also pioneering a concept of 鈥渇ocused鈥� small molecule libraries which would have activity only on closely related protein classes 鈥� an example of chemogenomics.  The 鈥淪oftFocus鈥� kinase (SFK) libraries were the particular domain of John (see and ), and his vision and design principles led to major commercial success for BioFocus and scientific successes for BioFocus鈥� clients which had purchased the libraries.

One such endeavor initiated by Galapagos, a Belgian-Dutch biotech company, led to the identification and ultimate marketing of filgotinib, a JAK-1 selective inhibitor for rheumatoid arthritis. Other successes from SoftFocus libraries were in the domain of anti-malarial and anti-cancer compounds. The success of the SoftFocus Kinase screening campaign by Galapagos led in 2005 to Galapagos acquiring BioFocus (by now relocated to Saffron Walden, in Essex) in an all-share transaction, and the development of BioFocus as the Service Division of Galapagos, until 2014, when BioFocus was sold to Charles River Inc. of the USA.

During his time at BioFocus, John changed roles from Founder/Consultant to Chief Scientific Office to Vice President in 2005-2006. He retired in 2006 as a full-time employee of BioFocus, but continued for many years as consultant, especially focusing on research on kinases. He was a non-executive director of Lee Oncology 2008-2011. His consulting activities also spread to Africa where he used his knowledge to building capacity in South Africa at H3D with Professor Kelly Chibale. H3D is now the largest drug discovery program in Africa and john was a key member at the start. More recently, John became passionate about Ubiquitinases, where he spent much of his latter working life building key knowledge with Ubiquigent.

John was an author or co-author of over 100 papers, patents and invited lectures.

Out of the laboratory, John devoted much time to sport, mainly cricket umpiring, shooting, and also local council work, amateur dramatics and of course music. He was also a keen collector 鈥� and drinker - of wine and he had a very impressive cellar!

John was a family man. He loved and was loved by his sister Cate, his first wife Sue, who sadly pre-deceased him, his two children by Sue, Jenny and Tom, and three grandchildren, and by his second wife, Sally, with whom he spent a very happy final decade in Brockenhurst, in the New Forest.