Lydia Lynch, a leading immunologist whose work focuses on whole-body metabolism and its impact on the immune system and cancer, has been named a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and a Member of the Princeton Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, effective immediately.
Lynch comes to Princeton from her position as associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Ludwig Institute established its Branch at Princeton University in the spring of 2021 to advance the science of cancer metabolism and explore the development of innovative dietary and pharmacological strategies for cancer therapy.
Professor Lynch’s comments, taken from the official Press Release:
“I am very grateful that I received a free education in Ireland, which somehow led me to Harvard. Now, in coming to Princeton, I want to be useful, to serve the community, students, colleagues, and neighbors as best I can. That this is part of Princeton’s motto is one of the most special things about this move.”
Lynch earned her B.Sc. in 2002 in Cell and Molecular Biology from University College Dublin, Ireland, graduating first in her class. She earned her Ph.D. in Immunology in 2008, also at UCD, under the advisership of Cliona O’Farrelly, and then was named a Newman Scholar under Donal O’ Shea, where she helped establish the Lab of Obesity and Immunology at St. Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin.
Lynch then received a UNESCO-L’Oreal International Women in Science and a Marie Curie International Fellowship to do postdoctoral work concurrently in the labs of Michael Brenner and Uli von Andrian at Harvard, studying innate T cells and immunometabolism. From there, she started her independent lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.
She was the recipient of the 2022 ICIS-Luminex John R. Kettman Award for Excellence in Cytokine & Interferon Research