David Lyden of Weill Cornell Medical College has been named one of only 12 winners of the Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Awards for his work in cancer research.

Lyden and his team have recently begun studying permissive microenvironments, or the metastatic niches, that form in particular tissues located far from the primary tumor, well before full metastasis takes hold.

"In cancer, it is metastatic disease that causes morbidity and mortality," said Lyden, the Stavros S. Niarchos Associate Professor in Pediatric Cardiology, an investigator in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology and associate professor of cell and development biology. "At our lab, we're developing a strategic approach to studying metastasis. Our goal is ultimately to be able to predict and pre-empt the process -- early, if possible, but even in advanced metastasis."

Work in Lyden's lab could lead to the development of new cancer treatments that target each step along the metastatic pathway. "We can envision a time in the not-too-distant future when we'll be able to prevent metastasis through a new approach for early detection and treatment," he said. "That's why we're studying the earliest changes in the pre-metastatic niche in such depth."

The Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Awards provide each investigator $100,000 per year for three years. The 12 award-winning research proposals from 2008 represent innovative and cutting-edge technology from disciplines that include molecular biology, diagnostics, imaging, infectious disease, tissue engineering and neurobiology.