By Liaw Wy-Cin

STAR scientist David Lane has had a change of heart. In a surprising U-turn, the cancer expert has decided to quit his job heading a British laboratory and return to work full-time in Singapore.

The time away had made him realise that the opportunities were better here, he said yesterday at a media conference in the Biopolis in Buona Vista.

'I'm impatient...there is real opportunity to do something for cancer here.

'This is not the time to wait, it is the time to push and the Singapore environment offers that opportunity,' said Sir David, 56, who was knighted in Britain in 2000 for his efforts in cancer research.

The decision comes just 11/2 years after he returned to Scotland with his wife, skin cell scientist Birgit Lane, 58. They had been in Singapore on sabbatical from Dundee University and returned as part of the agreement at the end of three years.

Yesterday, however, Sir David said that while the couple was loyal to the University of Dundee, where both have worked for 17 years, they realised that their future was in Singapore. It was easier to push research here, the couple said.

Sir David was among a group of scientists who discovered a tumour-suppressing gene, called p53, in 1979. The mutation in this gene has been implicated in half of all human cancers.

The couple came in 2005 to help shore up Singapore's nascent biomedical science scene. At the beginning of last year, they left to head Dundee University's new molecular medicine division, but early this year decided to explore returning here.

Throughout the 17 months, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) chairman Lim Chuan Poh was in constant touch with the Lanes, trying to persuade them to come back, he said.

Yesterday, a jubilant Mr Lim said: 'I have always believed they would come back.'

From September, Sir David will return to the A*Star's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology to do research and train young scientists. The institute, which he used to head, is now run by Professor Neal Copeland.

He is also A*Star's chief scientist, a newly created role he assumed last month to mentor younger scientists and spearhead cutting-edge research marrying the biomedical and physical sciences.

Lady Birgit will resume her position as head of A*Star's Institute of Medical Biology.

Both scientists will be here on a five-year contract, during which time they hope to quickly develop work on cancer and skin diseases.

While Sir David was last here, his lab created antibodies which could target the p53 gene in zebrafish. Hopefully this could one day lead to a treatment targeting the defective p53 gene in humans.

In a press statement, Dundee University's acting principal Peter Downes said that it was inevitable for senior staff to leave from time to time.

Another scientist who gave up his job overseas to work here, Bioinformatics Institute director Frank Eisenhaber, 48, said he was not completely surprised by the Lanes' decision.

'I knew he was considering many options and Singapore was one of them. He liked it here.'

wycin@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Straits Times.