He was the Kenneth F. Burgess Professor at Northwestern University and since 1991, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

His work on mechanism of action of viral proteins has had a significant impact on the field of virology.

[1] Right after completing his Ph.D., Lamb moved to the United States and joined The Rockefeller University, New York for a postdoctoral program in virology.

in 1990 and Northwestern University appointed him the John Evans Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology.

[7] Lamb was appointed chair of the Department of Molecular Biosciences at Northwestern University in 2011 and served in this position until 2017.

Lamb has been a member and chair of the Study Group on Paramyxoviridae, International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses, since 1997.

[1] After moving to Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, US, Lamb set up his namesake laboratory, where he has since conducted research and collaborated with several scientists.

Lamb's research has had a significant impact on the understanding of how viruses work at the molecular level through different points in the life cycle.

They found out that by disabling hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, the number of viruses exiting from the host cells decreased by 90%.

In further research, Lamb concluded that hemagglutinin gathers at lipid rafts for an adequate concentration in the budding viruses, which results in easy entry into the next cell.