Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University
Ian Lipkin M.D. Professor
wil2001@columbia.edu
Telephone: 342-9033
Fax: 851-5395
Research interests
Background: W. Ian Lipkin, MD, is Professor of Epidemiology in the Mailman School of Public Health, and Director of both the Laboratory for Immunopathogenesis and Infectious Diseases, and the Center for Developmental Neuroscience. Through June 2002 Dr. Lipkin also holds academic positions at University of California Irvine where he is the Louise Turner Arnold Chair of Neuroscience, Director of the Emerging Diseases Laboratory and Professor in the Departments of Neurology, Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. He is internationally recognized as an authority on the use of molecular biological methods for pathogen discovery and the role of immune and microbial factors in neurologic and neuropsychiatric diseases.
Dr. Lipkin received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 1974, where he studied cultural anthropology, philosophy, and literature; and an MD from Rush Medical College in 1978. His postgraduate training included Clerkship at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London, UK (1977-78); Internship in Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh (1978-79); Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington (1979-81), Residency in Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF, 1981-84), and Fellowship in Neurovirology and Molecular Neurobiology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (TSRI, 1984-1990). His honors include National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1984-1987, Clinical Investigator Development Award, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke, 1987-1992, NARSAD Young Investigator, 1991, Pew Scholar, 1991, Visiting Professor, Japanese Human Science Foundation, 1999, Visiting Bruenn Professor, Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, 2000, Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences, 2000, Foundation Lecturer, American Society of Microbiology, 2001, Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Global Infectious Diseases, 2001.
While a Resident in Neurology, Dr. Lipkin established the first clinic for investigating neurologic manifestations of HIV infection. In 1983, he identified AIDS-associated inflammatory neuropathy and demonstrated that this crippling syndrome could be treated with plasmapheresis. In 1988 as a fellow with Dr. Michael Oldstone at TSRI he demonstrated that early life viral infection can cause behavioral and neurotransmitter disturbances without obvious evidence of brain infection or injury. The observation that cryptic infection can influence brain function is increasingly recognized as important in the context of neuropsychiatric diseases such as autism and schizophrenia; and it may also play a role in neurodegenerative disorders. To address such questions, Dr. Lipkin created molecular methods for rapidly detecting unknown viruses in clinical materials. The first application of these methods resulted in identification of Borna disease virus, a new type of virus that had eluded classical methods for virus purification. Since isolating the first genes of this virus in 1990, Dr. Lipkin cloned its genome and defined its replication strategy and the molecular basis for neurotropism and behavioral syndromes associated with acute and persistent brain infection. An international multi-center program coordinated by Dr. Lipkin is assessing the role of Borna disease virus in human neuropsychiatric diseases using methods patented by Lipkin, Briese and colleagues. Dr. Lipkin is the leader of the team that established the method of domain specific differential display and subsequently identified the West Nile virus in the brains of encephalitis victims in New York State in the fall of 1999.
Your personal attacks do nothing for your argument.