David Lane on Possible Return to CSHL
  David Lane     Biography    
Recorded: 04 Jun 2001

They approached me about coming back and I did think about it but by that time I was very settled domestically in the UK. I think it’s funny living abroad, there’s such a funny business with living abroad. You never feel quite comfortable in the same way as you do in the country in which you were born. In a sense, there’s a big cultural—two nations divided by a common language, but I think it’s quite difficult for a British person in America. The cultures are more different than people realize. It’s funny but it’s insecurity, probably, that keeps me where I am, it’s a strange thing but I survive well in my own environment—would I survive in this other environment?

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.