Sir David Lane, Ph.D.

Professor Sir David Lane is a co-founder of FogPharma and one of the scientists credited with the landmark discovery of cancer gene p53 in 1979. p53, called the “guardian of the genome” is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer as more than half of human tumors contain mutations in the gene.

He was previously the director of the Cancer Research UK Cell Transformation Research Group and professor of oncology at the University of Dundee in Scotland. He had also held the position of chief scientist with Cancer Research UK. In 1996, Sir David Lane founded the biotechnology company Cyclacel. 

Sir David Lane is currently chief scientist of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and also the chairman of Chugai Pharmbody Research Pte Ltd (CPR), which he helped to attract to Singapore. His A*Star p53 laboratory is working on peptide and antibody based therapies that target the p53 pathway and on the evolution and function of tumor suppressors. Much of the work has been in collaboration with Dr. Chandra Verma’s team at A*Star BII.

For his efforts in cancer research, Sir David Lane was knighted in 2000. He also received the Cancer Research UK Lifetime Achievement Award – a prize that recognizes his pioneering research that led to the discovery of p53. Sir David Lane has also been awarded a number of international prizes, including the Paul Erlich Prize, the Josef Steiner Prize and the Brupbacher Prize.