Sir David Lane

 

The Conscientious Chief

 

UK-born Sir David Lane is set on grooming a generation of scientists with heart. In the cut-throat world of academia where most rush to publish, Sir David reminds his students of the importance of generosity and guards A*STAR’s research to ensure that there are no bogus scientific discoveries.

 

As the current chief scientist of A*STAR, what keeps Sir David Lane awake at night is the possibility of scientific fraud and the reputation of the organisation going down the drain. Recent scandals involving Japanese and Korean scientists have given Asian science a bad name. Sir David’s responsibility is to uphold A*STAR’s name and show that science in Singapore is just as robust as in the West.

Born in 1952, Sir David is best known for discovering the p53 gene, which he termed “guardian of the genome” as it protects cells from damage and helps prevent tumours. For instance, when cells are damaged during sunburn, the p53 gene causes these damaged cells to go into apoptosis and die. Without p53, abnormal cells proliferate, resulting in cancer. For this reason, the p53 is also called a tumour-suppressing gene. Sir David made this discovery while doing his postdoctoral work at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London after graduating with a PhD in immunology in 1976 from the University of London—where his supervisor, Professor Avrion Mitchison, described him as “the best student I ever had in college,” noted Professor Nikolai Zhelev from Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland, in an article on Sir David’s achievements. Sir David was knighted for his contributions to cancer research in January 2000.

In 2002, Sir David was invited to be chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB). But his daughter was still in high school and so he waited for her to enter university before moving to Singapore. In 2004, Sir David took up an appointment as executive director of the IMCB. He also took a two-year sabbatical, later extended to three years, from the University of Dundee, where he had been professor of medical oncology for 14 years. His wife, Prof Birgit Lane, an expert on the genetics behind human skin diseases, also took leave from Dundee to work at the Centre for Molecular Medicine as programme director. The centre is now known as the Institute of Medical Biology and she is its executive director. Scientific infrastructure was one of the considerations for their move. The facilities in Singapore make it easier to promote research, said Sir David. In Biopolis, scientists from different fields collaborate to work on projects that are difficult to do on one’s own. “There’s no place like this,” he added.

At IMCB, Sir David broke new ground in the study of the p53 gene. He developed antibodies that could target defective p53 genes in the zebrafish (a type of fish that is 70% similar to the human genome and often used as a biological model for scientists to experiment on) and discovered new forms of p53 that can control the gene’s work in suppressing tumours. The research could one day lead to a treatment for cancer. He also reviewed patents for approval at the IMCB. His task was to decide if they were worth filing. While the process is deceptively simple, it requires an understanding of specialist topics in science and knowing which invention would work and which would not.

In 2007, Sir David, with A*STAR’s support, set up the Experimental Therapeutics Centre (ETC), which aims to advance drug discovery in Singapore. A year later, he returned to Dundee University to head its new Division of Molecular Medicine. But in 2009, he came back to Singapore and gave up his tenured position at the University of Dundee. He explained in a 2009 The Straits Times interview that “there is a real opportunity to do something for cancer here”.

Sir David stepped down as CEO of ETC in 2009, which he said was the right decision. “I get things going but when it gets down to the details, keeping it going is less interesting to me. Besides, we were able to recruit Alex Matter, an outstanding drug discovery expert to take over from me.” He added, “Philip [Yeo], referring to my personality, said to me that I’m more a father than a mother.” He then moved on to become the chief scientist at A*STAR, a position he still holds. As chief scientist, he runs his own lab—named p53—and mentors young scientists. He also plays a research coordination role, and works with the directors of the different A*STAR institutes. He believes that it is important to “create a culture of excellence and self-criticism” and tells his staff not to rely only on approvals from journals as the litmus test for doing good science. Getting papers into a top journal does not mean that the results are immune from erroneous methodology and sloppy data management. In a recent case, a young Japanese scientist made a startling stem cell discovery that was published in Nature, the top science journal. Shortly after, she was found guilty of scientific misconduct. He thus makes sure that the methodologies his students use in their papers can be reproduced in the laboratory by two different people. Understanding the need for “face” in Asian culture, he does this tactfully. “When someone finds something interesting, then we should test it in another way, which someone else should try so that we don’t make mistakes and publish results that cannot be reproduced.”

Sir David recalled that when he arrived in 2002, then-Chairman of A*STAR Philip Yeo took him to the top of a building at Raffles Place and asked what he saw below. Sir David replied, “People” and Yeo said, “That’s it”. Sir David said he was slightly bewildered, and asked Yeo what he meant. Yeo continued, “That’s all we’ve got—people.” Sir David said the exchange impressed upon him an important fact: Singapore’s only resource is its people and so developing its human capital is key. It is also something that he believes in. Hence, when it comes to mentoring students, Sir David insists on teaching them teamwork. “You’ve got to succeed as a team and not as an individual,” he said. He encourages his students to collaborate and exchange ideas with one another, and to question one another’s view as well. The age-old archetype of a genius scientist competing with everyone else to publish a ground-breaking paper is a “terrible model”. He learnt that from Prof Mitchison at University College London. Calling him an eccentric scientist who was “tough but very good”, Sir David remembers his generosity fondly. This quality is one of the yardsticks he uses when hiring young scientists to work with him at A*STAR. “Generosity cannot be underestimated. If you’re generous to other people, they will be generous to you,” he said.

References

A*STAR, 2009. Professor Sir David and Professor Birgit Lane to resume full-time Appointments at A*STAR From September 2009.

Nikolai Zhelev, “Man of Science: Celebrating Professor Sir David Lane’s 60th anniversary,” Biodiscovery 1 (2012).

Interview with Sir David Lane in April 2015.

 

 

Sir David Lane
United Kingdom, b.1952