diff --git a/kubernetes/loculus/templates/_siloDatabaseConfig.tpl b/kubernetes/loculus/templates/_siloDatabaseConfig.tpl
index 7a7c00951..053422be9 100644
--- a/kubernetes/loculus/templates/_siloDatabaseConfig.tpl
+++ b/kubernetes/loculus/templates/_siloDatabaseConfig.tpl
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
   {{- if .generateIndex }}
   generateIndex: {{ .generateIndex }}
   {{- end }}
-  {{- if .lapisAllowsRegexSearch }}
-  lapisAllowsRegexSearch: {{ .lapisAllowsRegexSearch }}
+  {{- if eq .type "authors" }}
+  lapisAllowsRegexSearch: true
   {{- end }}
 {{- end }}
 
diff --git a/kubernetes/loculus/values.yaml b/kubernetes/loculus/values.yaml
index 6f5707733..1ffbd62d1 100644
--- a/kubernetes/loculus/values.yaml
+++ b/kubernetes/loculus/values.yaml
@@ -419,7 +419,6 @@ defaultOrganismConfig: &defaultOrganismConfig
         header: Authors
         truncateColumnDisplayTo: 15
         ingest: ncbi_submitter_names
-        lapisAllowsRegexSearch: true
       - name: author_affiliations
         displayName: Author affiliations
         generateIndex: true
diff --git a/website/src/components/SearchPage/SearchFullUI.tsx b/website/src/components/SearchPage/SearchFullUI.tsx
index 6944504e2..d13318e7e 100644
--- a/website/src/components/SearchPage/SearchFullUI.tsx
+++ b/website/src/components/SearchPage/SearchFullUI.tsx
@@ -175,8 +175,8 @@ export const InnerSearchFullUI = ({
     const detailsHook = hooks.useDetails({}, {});
 
     const lapisSearchParameters = useMemo(() => {
-        return getLapisSearchParameters(fieldValues, referenceGenomesSequenceNames);
-    }, [fieldValues, referenceGenomesSequenceNames]);
+        return getLapisSearchParameters(fieldValues, referenceGenomesSequenceNames, schema);
+    }, [fieldValues, referenceGenomesSequenceNames, schema]);
 
     useEffect(() => {
         aggregatedHook.mutate({
diff --git a/website/src/utils/search.ts b/website/src/utils/search.ts
index 56340b0bc..235470718 100644
--- a/website/src/utils/search.ts
+++ b/website/src/utils/search.ts
@@ -146,13 +146,29 @@ const textAccessionsToList = (text: string): string[] => {
     return accessions;
 };
 
+const makeCaseInsensitiveLiteralSubstringRegex = (s: string): string => {
+    // takes raw string and escapes all special characters and prefixes (?i) for case insensitivity
+    return `(?i)${s.replace(/[.*+?^${}()|[\]\\]/g, '\\$&')}`;
+};
+
 export const getLapisSearchParameters = (
     fieldValues: Record<string, any>,
     referenceGenomesSequenceNames: ReferenceGenomesSequenceNames,
+    schema: Schema,
 ): Record<string, any> => {
+    const expandedSchema = getMetadataSchemaWithExpandedRanges(schema.metadata);
+
     const sequenceFilters = Object.fromEntries(
         Object.entries(fieldValues).filter(([, value]) => value !== undefined && value !== ''),
     );
+    for (const field of expandedSchema) {
+        if (field.type === 'authors' && sequenceFilters[field.name] !== undefined) {
+            sequenceFilters[field.name.concat('$regex')] = makeCaseInsensitiveLiteralSubstringRegex(
+                sequenceFilters[field.name],
+            );
+            delete sequenceFilters[field.name];
+        }
+    }
 
     if (sequenceFilters.accession !== '' && sequenceFilters.accession !== undefined) {
         sequenceFilters.accession = textAccessionsToList(sequenceFilters.accession);
diff --git a/website/src/utils/serversideSearch.ts b/website/src/utils/serversideSearch.ts
index 198daf70b..6c5c12e26 100644
--- a/website/src/utils/serversideSearch.ts
+++ b/website/src/utils/serversideSearch.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ export const performLapisSearchQueries = async (
     organism: string,
 ): Promise<SearchResponse> => {
     const fieldValues = getFieldValuesFromQuery(state, hiddenFieldValues, schema);
-    const lapisSearchParameters = getLapisSearchParameters(fieldValues, referenceGenomesSequenceNames);
+    const lapisSearchParameters = getLapisSearchParameters(fieldValues, referenceGenomesSequenceNames, schema);
 
     const orderByField = ORDER_KEY in state ? state[ORDER_KEY] : schema.defaultOrderBy;
     const orderDirection = state[ORDER_DIRECTION_KEY] ?? schema.defaultOrder;