David Lane on Favorite Places at CSHL
  David Lane     Biography    
Recorded: 04 Jun 2001

Well, I like this [Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory] Library very much actually. I think it’s a beautiful place. I worked on the book, the antibody book [Antibodies: A Laboratory Manual] here and I used to come in here and read the literature to try and find out where all these techniques came from and try and trace them back historically. I love libraries and I think this is a beautiful library. This is very special for me. I still haven’t found a library I like as much. I mean it’s a combination of size and what it has.

James Lab, of course, is very special because I go in there and there’s almost a kind of smell about the place. It’s not a bad smell, it’s just the James smell and it had an immediate emotional effect because it was a time of strong emotions so you feel it. If I had to walk down that long corridor to Watson’s office, I’m sure I would still get tingles—pure fear! I think James is a special place as well, but also, I think, it’s the whole environment, it’s good.

David Lane, immunologist, is the Director of the Cancer Research UK Transformation Research Group at the University of Dundee, Department of Surgery and Molecular Oncology at the Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee, Scotland. Lane founded the Department of Surgery and Oncology in the University’s Medical School with Alfred Cucheiri, one of the pioneers in minimal access ("keyhole") surgery. Currently on leave from the University of Dundee, he the Executive Director of the IMCB in Singapore. Lane is also the founder and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Cyclacel, a Dundee based biotechnology company now listed on the NASDAQ. Shortly after receiving his Ph.D., he was recruited by Joe Sambrook to work at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory with the Tumor Virus Group in the 70’s, where he also completed one of his books on antibodies. In 2000, Lane was knighted by Queen Elizabeth of England for his many contributions to science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the University College London.