Cell Biology Program

The Lydia Finley Lab

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Research

Lydia Finley, PhD
Lydia Finley, PhD
Geoffrey Beene Junior Faculty Chair

The Finley Lab investigates how cellular metabolic pathways regulate cell fate decisions in stem cells and cancer cells. We combine genetic and metabolomic approaches to investigate cell-type specific growth requirements and elucidate how flux through central metabolic pathways regulates key cellular activities, including self-renewal and differentiation. In particular, we are interested in understanding how changes in metabolite availability shape the chromatin landscape to influence gene expression programs that control cell survival, growth and differentiation. Our work aims to answer fundamental questions about how cells regulate the commitment to differentiation and how failure to execute terminal differentiation can underlie diseases such as cancer.

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The Lydia Finley Lab

Featured News

A colorful pigeon standing in an urban setting.
SKI Scientists Discover a New Twist on an 80-Year-Old Biochemical Pathway

With the resurgence of interest in cancer metabolism, researchers are coming to realize that there is more to a cell’s biochemistry than once thought.
In Brief
A fluorescent image of cells undergoing differentiation in a mouse model.
Cancer Stem Cells’ Reliance on a Key Amino Acid Could Be an Exploitable Weakness

The discovery links metabolism to the way cancer stem cells form tumors.
In the Lab
illustration of the p53 protein binding to a DNA helix
New Findings Clarify How the “Guardian of the Genome” Works

Surprise! It has to do with metabolism.

Publications

A non-canonical tricarboxylic acid cycle underlies cellular identity. [PMID: 35264789] Arnold PK, Jackson BT, Paras KI, Brunner JS, Hart ML, Newsom OJ, Alibeckoff SP, Endress J, Drill E, Sullivan LB, Finley LWS. Nature. 2022 Mar;603(7901):477-481. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04475-w. Epub 2022 Mar 9. PMCID: PMC8934290.

Extracellular serine controls epidermal stem cell fate and tumour initiation. [PMID: 32451440] Baksh SC, Todorova PK, Gur-Cohen S, Hurwitz B, Ge Y, Novak JSS, Tierney MT, Dela Cruz-Racelis J, Fuchs E#, Finley LWS#. Nat Cell Biol. 2020 Jul;22(7):779-790. doi: 10.1038/s41556-020-0525-9. Epub 2020 May 25. Erratum in: Nat Cell Biol. 2020 Nov;22(11):1396. PMCID: PMC7343604. (#co-corresponding author)

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People

Lydia Finley, PhD

Lydia Finley, PhD

Geoffrey Beene Junior Faculty Chair

  • Lydia Finley studies the mechanisms that link metabolic pathways to cell fate decisions.
  • PhD, Harvard University
  • BS, Yale University
[email protected]
Email Address
212-639-6722
Office Phone

Members

Pavlina Todorova, PhD
Pavlina Todorova

Research Associate

Julia Brunner
Julia Brunner

Research Fellow

Jossie J Yashinskie
Jossie J Yashinskie

Graduate Student

Katrina Paras
Katrina Paras

Graduate Student

Benjamin Jackson
Benjamin Jackson

Graduate Student

Abigail Xie

Graduate Student

Anna
Anna Bridgeman

MSK Bridge Program Scholar

Natasha Freidman

Research Fellow

Sonia Das
Sonia Das

Sr. Administrative Assistant

Lab Alumni
Paige Arnold
Paige Arnold

Postdoctoral Associate at Rockefeller University, New York, NY

Yanyang Chen
Yanyang Chen

Research Technician

Yuma Tada
Yuma Tada

Graduate Student

Sanjeethan Baksh
Sanjeethan Baksh

Medical Resident

Lin Hedehus

Graduate Research Assistant

Lab Affiliations

Achievements

  • New York Stem Cell Foundation – Robertson Investigator (2023)
  • Louise and Allston Boyer Young Investigator Award for Basic Research (2022)
  • National Cancer Institute R37 MERIT Award (2020)
  • Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Cancer Research (2020)
  • Searle Scholar (2018)
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  • Dale F. Frey Breakthrough Award of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation (2017)

Lab News & Events

Accolades

Team Recognitions

  • Paige Arnold, Gerstner Sloan Kettering Chairman’s Prize (2022)
  • Paige Arnold, Weintraub Award (2022)
  • Sanjeethan Baksh, STAT Wunderkind (2022)
  • Benjamin Jackson, NIH/NICHD F31 (2022)
  • Katrina Paras, Bruce Charles Forbes Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (2021)
  • Benjamin Jackson, Gerstner Sloan Kettering Grayer Fellowship (2021)
  • Julia Brunner, Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship (2021)
  • Sanjeethan Baksh, Olaf S. Anderson Physician-Scientist Award (2021)
  • Paige Arnold, NIH/NICHD F31 (2019)
  • Jossie Yashinskie, AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award (2018)
  • Jossie Yashinskie, NIH/NICHD T32 fellowship (2018)

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

Career Opportunities

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Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Lydia Finley discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period


The information published here is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2022 through disclosure submission in spring 2023). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].


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