Dr. Lyden completed his M.D. at Brown University, Ph.D. at the University of Vermont, residency in Pediatrics at Duke University, and a clinical and postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Currently, he is the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor of Pediatrics and Cell and Developmental Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine/Cornell University.
He defined the concept of the "pre-metastatic niche" (PMN), where tumor-secreted factors recruit bone marrow-derived progenitor cells and immune cells to distant organ sites to provide a platform for metastasis. In addition, he demonstrated that tumor-derived exosomes initiate the PMN by educating resident stromal cells which alters the immune landscape, promoting metastasis. He identified key proteins and nucleic acids, specifically double stranded DNA, in exosomes and demonstrated that this exosomal cargo supports thrombosis, vascular leakiness, immune dysregulation, and PMN formation.
In regards to Stephen Paget’s “seed and soil” hypothesis, he has solved this mystery, in part, defining the role of tumor exosomal integrins in organotropic metastasis. His lab has devised a new technology for the isolation of extracellular vesicle subpopulations and identified a new particle named exomere, the most prominent tumor particle secreted by tumor cells, which packages distinct enzyme proteins, lipids, and glycans. While exosomes promote pre-metastatic niche formation, exomeres promote metabolic dysregulation in the liver. Most recently, leveraging more than a decade worth of exosome proteomics, his lab has performed a comprehensive analysis of exosomal cargo across a variety of human cancers, identifying novel exosomal markers as well as pan-cancer and cancer type-specific exosomal biomarkers for early cancer detection.
Moreover, Dr. Lyden is the 2018 recipient of the National Institutes of Health R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, which supports his efforts to explore the systemic effects of metastatic cancer and he is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2024, Dr. Lyden was honored by the Metastasis Research Society with their highest distinction, the Paget Ewing Award, for his contributions to understanding metastasis. In addition to his scientific research, Dr. Lyden is the Director of the Physician Scientist Training Program, at WCM, which aims to train the next generation of pediatric physician scientists. Dr. Lyden is part of the Tri-I MD-PhD program and the Weill Cornell Graduate School Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology (BCMB) Program, and the Director of the Physician Scientist Training Program in Pediatrics.