Dr. Lyden is a major contributor to the study that showed that bone marrow harbors the cells that are essential to building the lining of tumor blood vessels, a finding which may lead to more targeted treatment for cancer, including the use of antibodies to block the mobilization of bone marrow cells. Most recently, Lyden co-authored work demonstrating that bone-marrow-derived vascular stem cells contribute to angiogenesis and growth of certain tumors.
Rafii S. and Lyden D. S100 chemokines mediate bookmarking of pre-metastatic niches. Nature Cell Biology. 2006 8:1321-1323.
Kaplan RN, Riba RD, Zacharoulis S, Bramley AH, Vincent L, Costa C, MacDonald DD, Jin DK, Shido K, Kerns SA, Zhu Z, Hicklin D, Wu Y, Port JL, Altorki N, Port ER, Ruggero D, Shmelkov SV, Jensen KK, Rafii S, Lyden D. VEGFR1-positive haematopoietic bone marrow progenitors initiate the pre-metastatic niche. Nature (article) (News and Views p.750). 2005 438 (7069): 820-827.