Kirsten E. Lyke, MD

Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences (Honors and Distinctions), B.A., Biology/Physiology/Anatomy, 1988

Georgetown University School of Medicine (Honors and Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society), M.D., 1992

Internship/Residency, Duke University Medical Center, 1992-1995

Research Fellow, Hospital Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Tropical Diseases, Division of Infectious Diseases, HIV/AIDSi, 1994

Research Fellow, Universidadé dos Espirito Santos, Vitoria, Brazil, Tropical Diseases, Division of Infectious Diseases, Tuberculosis, 1995

United States Air Force; Major, Sheppard Air Force Base Hospital, Chairman: Division of Internal Medicine and Cardiopulmonary, Director: Medical/Surgical Intensive Care Unit, 1995-1998

Clinical and Research Fellow, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, 1998-2002    

Research Fellow, University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Vaccine Development (CVD), Molecular Parasitology and Malaria, 1999-2002     

Dr. Lyke is a clinical translational investigator with recognized expertise in malaria, tropical diseases, and parasite immunology. Dr. Lyke is board certified in adult Infectious Diseases and maintains an HIV clinic in addition to attending on the hospital wards as an Infectious Diseases Attending. She has been on faculty at the University of Maryland (UMB) School of Medicine since 2002. She is the current Director of The Malaria Vaccine and Challenge Unit. Much of her early academic career was spent pursuing fieldwork in Mali, West Africa, studying malaria and helminthes immunology, epidemiology and co-infection.

Currently, she conducts malaria and tropical diseases vaccine studies. Dr. Lyke has rebuilt the malaria challenge capabilities at UMB, which has led to novel vaccine work including the first-in-humans challenge trial of a whole-organism Pf sporozoite malaria vaccine and the first-in-humans aseptic malaria challenge. She has planned and led studies aimed at developing parenterally-administered malaria challenges and continues to advance the whole organism, Pf sporozoite malaria vaccine approach through Phase I, II and upcoming Phase III trials. She was the site Principal Investigator for the first Phase I domestic Ebola vaccine trials and is currently leading Ebola and Dengue vaccine trials and participating in the first Zika vaccine trial.

In addition to clinical vaccine and challenge studies, Dr. Lyke was formerly the Head of the Immunoparasitology Unit and continues to study the human immune response to parasites. She plans and participates in field, clinical, and immunologic studies of Plasmodium falciparum and helminths. Immunologic studies involve the investigation of different components of the human immune response, including immunomodulation via T and B regulatory cells, cell multifunctionality, T and B cell memory, mechanisms of lymphocyte activation, cytotoxic T cell activity and lymphoid cell populations involved in the generation of protective immune responses. The lab is actively conducting studies utilizing mass cytometry to aid in the understanding of differences associated with natural vs. vaccine induced immunity as well as malaria co-infection with helminthes and HIV.  In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Bamako in Mali, Dr. Lyke has aided in the development of a field research site in the Dogon country of Mali and collaborates with investigators in Blantyre, Malawi. This field station has been the site of studies of drug resistance and pathogenesis of severe malaria, and has completed several malaria vaccine trials.

Malaria vaccines, malaria immunology, Schistosomiasis, Ebola, Dengue, Zika.

Lyke KE*, Epstein JE*, Tewari K* (*Co-first authors), Sim BKL, Billingsley PF, Laurens MB,6, Gunasekera A,Chakravarty S, James ER, Sedegah M, Richman A, Velmurugan S, Reyes S, Li M, Tucker K,Ahumada A, Ruben A, Li T, Stafford R, Eappen AG, Tamminga C, Bennett JW, Ockenhouse CF, Murphy JR, Komisar J, Thomas N, Loyevsky M, Birkett A, Plowe CV, Loucq C, Edelman R, Richie TL, Seder RA** , Hoffman SL** (* Co-first authors, ** Co-last authors). Live attenuated malaria vaccine designed to protect through hepatic CD8+ T cell immunity. Science. Oct 28;334(6055):475-80.

(Tapia MD, Sow SO, Lyke KE)* co-first authors, Haidara FC, Diallo, F Doumbia M, Traore A, Coulibaly F, Kodio M, Onwuchekwa U, Sztein MB, Wahid R, Campbell JD, Kieny M, Moorthy V, Imoukhuede EB, Rampling T, Roman F, De Ryck I, Bellamy AR, Dally L, Mbaya OT, Ploquin A, Zhou Y, Stanley DA, Bailer R, Koup RA, Roederer M, Ledgerwood J, Hill AVS, Ballou R, Sullivan N, Graham B, Levine MM. Use of ChAd3-EBO-Z Ebola virus vaccine in Malian and US adults, and boosting of Malian adults with MVA-BN-Filo: a phase 1, single-blind, randomised trial, a phase 1b, open-label and double-blind, randomised, dose-escalation trial, and a nested, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2016 Jan;16(1):31-42.

Lyke KE, Laurens MB, Strauss K, Adams A, Billingsley PF, James E, Manoj A, Chakravarty S, Plowe CV, Li ML, Ruben A, Edelman R, Green M, Sim BKL, Hoffman SL. Optimizing Intradermal Administration of Cryopreserved Plasmodium falciparum Sporozoites in Controlled Human Malaria Infection. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2015 Dec 9;93(6):1274-84.

Ishizuka AS*, Lyke KE* (*co-1st authors), DeZure A, Berry A, Thomas L Richie TL, Mendozan FH, Enama ME, Gordon IJ, Chang LJ, Sarwar UN, Zephir KL, Holman LA, James ER, Billingsley PF, Gunasekera A, Chakravarty A, Manoj A, Li M, Ruben AJ, TLi T, Eappen AG, Stafford RE, Natasha KC, Murshedkar T, DeCederfelt H, Plummer SH, Hendel CS, Novik L, Costner PJM, Saunders JG, Laurens MB, Plowe CV, Flynn B, Whalen WR, JP Todd, Noor J, Rao S, Sierra-Davidson K, Lynn GM, Epstein JE, Kemp M, Fahle GA, Mikolajczak SA, Fishbaugher M, Sack BK, Kappe SHI, Davidson SA, Garver LS, Björkström NK, Nason MC, Graham BS, Roederer M, Sim BKL, Hoffman SL+, Ledgerwood JE+, & Seder RA+ (+co-last authors), for the VRC 312 and VRC 314 Study Teams. Protection against malaria at 1 year and immune correlates following PfSPZ vaccination. Nat Med. 2016 Jun 7;22(6):692.

Graves SF, Kouriba B, Diarra I, Daou M, Niangaly A, Coulibaly D, Keita Y, Laurens MB, Berry AA, Vekemans J, Ripley Ballou W, Lanar DE, Dutta S, Gray Heppner D, Soisson L, Diggs CL, Thera MA, Doumbo OK, Plowe CV, Sztein MB, Lyke KE. Strain-specific Plasmodium falciparum multifunctional CD4(+) T cell cytokine expression in Malian children immunized with the FMP2.1/AS02A vaccine candidate. Vaccine. 2016 May 17;34(23):2546-55.

Lyke, KE, Ishizuka AS, Berry AA et al.  Attenuated PfSPZ Vaccine induces strain transcending T cell and durable protection against heterologous controlled human malaria infection. PNAS. 2017, 114(10): 2711-2716.