21 May 2009

Professors Sir David and Birgit Lane to resume full-time appointments in Singapore

Professor Sir David Lane and Professor Birgit Lane are to leave the University of Dundee and take up full-time appointments with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore from 1st September 2009.

Sir David Lane will resume his position as Chief Scientist to the Agency for Science, Technology and Research. Birgit Lane will resume full-time duties as Executive Director of the Institute of Medical Biology at the Agency, which she helped to establish.

Both previously worked in Singapore while on sabbatical leave from the University of Dundee, Scotland, from 2005-2007. They returned to Dundee in late 2007 and helped establish an innovative interdisciplinary research division, the Division of Molecular Medicine, together with Professor Irwin McLean.

'It is inevitable that from time to time we will see senior staff leave, and we wish David and Birgit well in Singapore,' said Professor Peter Downes, Acting Principal of the University of Dundee.

'We appreciate all the work they have done in Dundee, most recently in helping establish the Division of Molecular Medicine, which will continue to grow and develop under the leadership of Professor Irwin McLean, discoverer of filaggrin gene mutations which have been shown to be a cause of eczema and some forms of asthma.'

'We have a great ability in Dundee to recruit world class scientists to enhance our position as a centre of excellence in Europe for research in biomedical and biological sciences and we are confident of our ability to continue to do so.'

David and Birgit Lane said they see the University of Dundee as 'one of the best places to do translational biomedical science in the UK'. They will continue to promote their UK links and will retain their productive Dundee collaborations in Singapore.

The Lanes’ arrival in Singapore in 2005 began a strong connection between the Agency for Science, Technology and Research and the University of Dundee - one of the UK’s top life sciences institutes - and the heads of the two institutions signed an agreement for co-training of students in 2006 which has developed into a growing body of jointly supervised research students, regular joint scientific symposia, sharing of teaching practices and many research collaborations.

Sir David will continue in his current position as Cancer Research UK’s Chief Scientist.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Background:
Professor Sir David Lane and Professor Birgit Lane initially worked with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore from 2005 to 2007. In late 2007 the Lanes resumed their duties at the University of Dundee, setting up a novel trans-College research division, the Division of Molecular Medicine, together with Professor Irwin McLean. This Division is located in the Wellcome Trust Biocentre and unusually hosts staff from both the College of Life Sciences and the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing, and also the Department of Physics. This cross-college research division aims to enable interdisciplinary research and capitalise on the recognized intellectual fertility of boundary environments between disciplines.

In 2008 Sir David also took up the post of Chief Scientist at Cancer Research UK, the world’s leading charity dedicated to cancer research, where he plays a key role in advising and shaping research policy through the Executive Board and Scientific Executive Board meetings of the charity.

David and Birgit have maintained their Singapore links since their return to Dundee and the University of Dundee continues to be a strong collaborative partner of Singapore.

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