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, parasite immunology, and emerging infections. Dr. Lyke is board certified in adult Infectious Diseases and maintains an HIV clinic in addition to attending on the Critical Care Units 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 co-Director of the Malaria Research Program and Director of The Vector-borne Diseases and Challenge Unit. Much of her early academic career was spent pursuing fieldwork in Mali, West Africa, aiding in the development of a clinical and vaccine testing center in the Dogon country of Mali, 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 developed dengue human challenge models and remains focuses on vaccines against emerging infections including Dengue, Ebola and Zika.  During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, she co-lead the Pfizer/BioNTech Phase 1 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine trials leading to EUA status within 10 months of study. She conceived of and co-Chaired the National Mix and Match study examining homologous and heterologous Covid-19 booster vaccines which changed public health policy by FDA and ACIP approval of heterologous Covid-19 booster vaccinations.

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 planed and participated 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 spectral flow cytometry to aid in the understanding of differences associated malaria and dengue immunity . On the strength of her work, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and was inducted in 2024.

Malaria controlled human infection models, dengue human infection models, 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.

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.

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.

(Mulligan MJ, Lyke KE, Kitchin N- Co-1^st Authors), Absalon J, Gurtman A, Lockhart S, Neuzil K, Raabe V, Bailey R, Swanson KA, Li P, Koury K, Kalina W, Cooper D, Fontes-Garfias C, Shi PY, Türeci Ö, Tompkins KR, Walsh EE, Frenck R, Falsey AR, Dormitzer PR, Gruber WC, Şahin U, Jansen KU. Phase 1/2 study of COVID-19 RNA vaccine BNT162b1 in adults. Nature. 2020 Aug 12. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2639-4.

(Atmar RL, Lyke KE * Co-1st Authors), Meagan E. Deming, Lisa A. Jackson, Angela R. Branche, Hana M. El Sahly, Christina A. Rostad, Judith M. Martin, Christine Johnston, Richard E. Rupp, Mark J. Mulligan, Rebecca C. Brady, Robert W. Frenck, Jr., Martín Bäcker, Angelica C. Kottkamp, Tara M. Babu, Kumaravel Rajakumar, Srilatha Edupuganti, David Dobryzynski, Christine M. Posavad, Janet I. Archer, Sonja Crandon, Seema U. Nayak, Daniel Szydlo, Jillian Zemanek, Clara P. Dominguez Islas, Elizabeth R. Brown, Mehul S. Suthar, M. Juliana McElrath, Adrian B. McDermott, Sarah E. O’Connell, David C. Montefiori, Amanda Eaton, Kathleen M. Neuzil, David S. Stephens, Paul C. Roberts, John H. Beigel, DMID 21-0012 Study Group. Homologous and Heterologous Covid-19 Booster Vaccinations. N Engl J Med. Mar 17;386(11):1046-1057.https://doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2116414. Epub 2022 Jan 26.

Lyke KE, Berry AA, Mason K, Idris AH, O’Callahan M, Happe M, Strom L, Berkowitz NM, Guech M, Hu Z, Castro M, Basappa M, Wang L, Low K, Holman LA, Mendoza F, Gordon IJ, Plummer SH, Trofymenko O, Strauss KS, Joshi S, Shrestha B, Adams M, Campos Chagas A, Murphy JR, Stein J, Hickman S, McDougal A, Lin L, Narpala SR, Vazquez S, Serebryannyy L, McDermott A, Gaudinski MR, Capparelli EV, Coates EE, Wu RL, Ledgerwood JE, Dropulic LK, Seder RA, and the VRC 612 Part C Study Team. Low Dose Intravenous and Subcutaneous CIS43LS Monoclonal Antibody Protects Against Malaria: A Phase 1 Clinical Trial. Lancet ID. 2023 May;23(5):578-588. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00793-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4240619

Lyke KE, Chua JV, Koren M, Friberg H, Gromowski GD, Rapaka RR, Waickman AT, Joshi S, Strauss K, McCracken MK, Gutierrez-Barbosa H, Shrestha B, Culbertson C, Bernal P, De La Barrera RA, Currier JR, Jarman RG, Edelman R. Efficacy and immunogenicity following dengue virus 1 human challenge assessing a tetravalent prime boost dengue vaccine: a phase 1, open label trial. Lancet ID, 2024 (Apr26): https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00100-2

Lyke KE, Berry AB, Laurens MB, Winkler J, Joshi S, Koudjra AR, Butler L, Billingsley P, Pascini T, Patil A, Sim BKL, Fitzgerald G, Reigel J, Andrews K, Levi M Anderson A, Wells C, Liu H, Huleatt J, Miller S, and the MAM01 Part A Study Team. Dose Escalation, Double Blind, Placebo Controlled Evaluation of MAM01 Monoclonal Antibody for Protection Against Malaria: A First-in-human, Phase 1 Adaptive Trial. Lancet ID, Online publication, 23 Sep 2025, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(25)00481-5.