Sir David Lane FRS is best known for his seminal contributions to the discovery and functional understanding of the p53 tumor suppressing-protein. p53 is considered the "Guardian of the Genome", and its significance in cancer is illustrated by its mutation in over half of all cancers.  Sir David Lane is Chief Scientist at Singapore's  A*STAR and head of the p53 laboratory there.  In April 2011, Cancer Research UK appointed Professor Sir David Lane as their first Chief Scientist.  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.  Sir David Lane has also founded Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc, a biotechnology company now listed on NASDAQ, developing novel drugs for the treatment of cancer.  For his extensive contributions to cancer research, Professor Lane was knighted in 2000.