Prof Birgit Lane

Birgit Lane

Principal Investigator, Epithelial Biology Group

Deputy Head of Division, Molecular Medicine, University of Dundee

keratin cytoskeleton, genetic diseases, wound healing, skin cancer

Biography

Birgit Lane was appointed Executive Director of CMM in April 2006, and of the IMB when it was formed in April 2007. She came to

Singapore

in January 2005 as a Programme Director in the Centre for Molecular Medicine. She obtained her BSc and PhD degrees in Zoology at University College London, and worked as a postdoctoral scientist at UCL, Imperial College London and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York before joining ICRF (now Cancer Research

) in 1980, where she later became a tenured staff member. She moved her group to the University of Dundee in 1990, where she holds the Cox Chair of Anatomy & Cell Biology in the College of Life Sciences. She is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the

’s Academy of Medical Sciences.

Birgit Lane has published over 200 research papers and reviews. She is known internationally for her work on keratins and has a long-standing interest in the function of the keratin cytoskeleton in epithelia and its importance in disease. She has made pivotal contributions to the use of monoclonal antibodies to keratins in diagnostic pathology and cell biology, and to the recognition of keratin mutations as causing many inherited tissue fragility disorders.

Professor Lane also holds adjunct appointments in A*STAR’s IMCB and in the Departments of Pathology and Biochemistry at NUS, and is an Honorary Visiting Consultant at the National Skin Centre, Singapore. She was recently appointed Adjunct Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden.

Representative Publications

1. Chen H, Toh TK, Szeverenyi I, Ong RT, Theng CT, McLean WH, Seielstad M, Lane EB (2008). Association of Skin Barrier Genes within the PSORS4 Locus Is Enriched in Singaporean Chinese with Early-Onset Psoriasis. J Invest Dermatol. 2008 Sep 11. [Epub ahead of print]

2. Szeverenyi I, Cassidy AJ, Chung CW, Lee BT, Common JE, Ogg SC, Chen H, Sim SY, Goh WL, Ng KW, Simpson JA, Chee LL, Eng GH, Li B, Lunny DP, Chuon D, Venkatesh A, Khoo KH, McLean WH, Lim YP, Lane EB (2007). The Human Intermediate Filament Database: comprehensive information on a gene family involved in many human diseases. Hum Mutat 29(3):351-360.

3. Pekny M, Lane EB (2007) Intermediate filaments and stress. Expl Cell Res 313: 2244-2254

4. Rugg EL, Horn HM, Smith FJ, Wilson NJ, Hill AJM, Magee GJ, Shemanko CS, Baty DU, Tidman JM and Lane EB (2007). Epidermolysis simplex in Scotland caused by a spectrum of keratin mutations. J Invest Dermatol 127:574-80. (Epub Oct 12 2006).

5. Lane EB (2006) Intermediate Filaments. In: Cells, Eds Lewin B, Cassimeris L, Lingappa VR, Plopper G. Jones & Bartlett, Sudbury, Mass. USA.
Schweizer J, Bowden PE, Coulombe PA, Langbein L, Lane EB, Magin TM, Maltais L,

6. Omary MB, Parry DA, Rogers MA and Wright MW (2006). New consensus nomenclature for mammalian keratins. J Cell Biol 174: 169-174.

7. Russell D, Andrews PD, James J and Lane EB (2004). Mechanical stress induces profound remodelling of keratin filaments and cell junctions in epidermolysis bullosa simplex keratinocytes. J Cell Sci 117: 5233

8. Owens DW, Wilson NJ, Hill AJM, Rugg EL, Porter RM, Hutcheson AM, Quinlan RA, van Heel D, Parkes M, Jewell DP, Campbell SS, Ghosh S, Satsangi J and Lane EB (2004). Human keratin 8 mutations that disturb filament assembly observed in inflammatory bowel disease patients. J Cell Sci 117: 1989-1999.

9. D’Alessandro M, Morley SM, Ogden P, Liovic M, Porter R and Lane EB (2004). Functional improvement of mutant keratin cells on addition of desmin: an alternative approach to gene therapy for dominant diseases. Gene Therapy 11: 1290-1295.

10. Liovic M, Mogensen MM, Prescott AR and Lane EB (2003). Observation of keratin particles showing fast bidirectional movement colocalised with microtubules. J Cell Sci 116: 1417-1427.

11. Owens DW and Lane EB (2003). The quest for the function of simple epithelial keratins. Bioessays 25: 748-758.