Dr. Lyden completed his M.D. at Brown University, Ph.D. at the University of Vermont, Residency at Duke University, postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Ceneter; currently, he is the Stavros S. Niarchos Professor of Pediatrics and Cell and Developmental Biology at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Lyden defined the concept of the "pre-metastatic niche" (PMN), where tumor-secreted factors recruit bone marrow-derived progenitor cells to distant organ sites to provide a platform for metastasis. Dr. Lyden’s work underscores the systemic nature of cancer. As such, Dr. Lyden demonstrated that tumor-derived extracellular vesicle (EV)-mediated crosstalk initiates the PMN and coordinates metastatic progression. He identified key proteins and nucleic acids, specifically double stranded DNA, in EVs and demonstrated their systemic role in thrombosis, fatty liver metabolic dysfunction, and immune dysregulation. He has defined tumor EV integrins in organotropic metastasis, answering in part Stephen Paget’s “seed and soil” hypothesis on organ-specific metastasis. Moreover, he identified a new particle named exomere, which packages distinct proteins, including metabolic enzymes, lipids, and glycans. He has identified novel EV biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and prognosis in patients with cancer.

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Dr. Lyden is an elected Member of the Association of American Physicians (2021) and an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2022). Dr. Lyden is the recipient of the 2024 Princess Lilian Award for excellence in research and mentoring by the Belgium Royal Family, the 2024 Paget-Ewing Award, the highest award by the Metastasis Research Society, the 2026 AACR Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship Award for his innovative research highlighting multi-national collaboration, and the National Institutes of Health R35 Outstanding Investigator Award, that supports his efforts to explore the systemic effects of metastatic cancer.