Biography

Dr Alexander Lyon studied medicine at Oxford University where he was awarded a first-class degree in physiological sciences in 1995, achieving second place in the final honours school. After qualifying from the John Radcliffe Medical School in 1998, he trained as a junior doctor in cardiology in Oxford, London (Royal Brompton Hospital) and Sydney, Australia.

He joined the cardiac medicine research group of Professor Sian Harding and Professor Philip Poole-Wilson, where he studied the influence of cardiac gene therapy upon ventricular arrhythmia generation. He was awarded an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship in 2005 and completed his PhD in 2008, where he spent his first postdoctoral year studying the spatiotemporal patterns of mitochondrial function in the lab of Fadi Akar and Roger Hajjar at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. 

He was appointed a Walport Clinical Lecturer in Cardiology at Imperial College in October 2008, and he completed his cardiology training at St Mary’s Hospital and Royal Brompton Hospital.

He was appointed a senior lecturer and consultant cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital in January 2012.

Areas of expertise

Dr Lyon's clinical expertise includes: 

• heart failure

• chemotherapy-induced heart failure

• Takotsubo syndrome

• cardiac gene therapy

• novel molecular and biological therapies for heart failure.

Dr Lyon is lead for the heart failure research theme of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) cardiovascular biomedical research unit (cBRU) at Royal Brompton Hospital. 

He is also: 

• clinical lead for the cardio-oncology service, Royal Brompton Hospital (2011-present)
• chair of UK Cardio-Oncology Consortium (2012- present)
• a member of Heart Failure Association Translational Research Committee (ESC: 2012-present).

Research interests

Dr Lyon's research interests include: 

• abnormal calcium physiology in heart failure

• mechanisms of ventricular arrhythmias in heart failure

• biological therapies for heart failure – these include gene therapy, stem cell therapy and myocardial tissue engineering. Dr Lyon is UK national coordinating investigator for CUPID 2 - the first UK cardiac gene therapy trial for advanced heart failure.

• the SERCA-LVAD gene therapy trial - Dr Lyon is the lead clinical investigator

• Spatio-temporal patterns of mitochondrial dysfunction in the intact heart

• the influence of stress and high catecholamine levels on cardiac function

• chemotherapy-induced heart failure and novel therapeutic options for patients with heart failure caused by anti-cancer therapies.

Gene therapy research

Watch Dr Lyon discuss Trust research into exploring the role of gene therapy in helping treat people with heart and lung diseases.

Teaching

Dr Lyon has presented at numerous national and international meetings in the field of cardiac calcium pathophysiology, gene therapy in heart failure, chemotherapy-induced cardiac dysfunction and heart failure, and Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. 

He is a senior lecturer at Imperial College, with his first two PhD students being awarded their theses in 2011/12, and he is currently supervising nine Imperial College PhD students.

Publications

Dr Lyon has reviewed manuscripts for various scientific journals including:

• British Medical Journal
• Circulation Research
• European Heart Journal, Heart
• European Journal of Heart Failure
• American Journal of Physiology
• British Journal of Pharmacology
• Europace
• Journal of Cardiac Failure
• Cardiology
• Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry and Medical Science Monitor.

Awards

Dr Lyon has received a number of academic awards throughout his career, such as: 

• the inaugural Bernard and Joan Marshall Young Investigator Prize from the British Society for Cardiovascular Research (2010)

• the British Cardiovascular Society Young Investigator Competition Winner (Basic Sciences) (2009)

• the Medical Research Society Raftery Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences Winner (2008)

• the European Meeting of International Society of Heart Research Best Scientific Poster Prize (2008)

• the Royal Society of Medicine Cardiology Section President’s Medal Winner (2007).