W. Ian Lipkin (born 1952) is the John Snow Professor of
Epidemiology at the
Mailman School of Public Health at
Columbia University and Professor of Neurology and Pathology at College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. Lipkin is also Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity, an academic laboratory for microbe hunting in acute and chronic diseases.
Lipkin was born in Chicago, Illinois where he attended the
University of Chicago Laboratory School. He was President of the Student Board in 1969. He received his BA from
Sarah Lawrence College in 1974. He earned his MD from
Rush Medical College, in 1978. He was a clinical clerk at the Institute for Neurology, Queen Square, in London, UK (1978-1979). He had a brief stint with the
Indian Health Service in
Tishomingo, Oklahoma in 1978. He then trained at
University of Pittsburgh as an Intern in Medicine from 1978-79. He went on to complete a Residency in Medicine at
University of Washington (1979-81), and a Residency in Neurology at
University of California, San Francisco, (1981-1984). He conducted postdoctoral research in microbiology and neuroscience at
The Scripps Research Institute from 1984-90. He was President of the Scripps' Society of Fellows in 1987.
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[edit] Career
A physician-scientist, Lipkin is internationally recognized for his work with
West Nile virus and
SARS, as well as advancing pathogen discovery techniques by developing a staged strategy using techniques pioneered in his lab. These molecular biological methods, including MassTag-PCR, the GreeneChip diagnostic, and High Throughput Sequencing, are a major step towards identifying and studying new
viral pathogens that emerge locally throughout the globe. A major node in a global network of investigators working to address the challenges of pathogen surveillance and discovery, Dr. Lipkin has trained over 30 internationally based
scientists in these state-of-the art diagnostic techniques.
Lipkin is the Director of the
Northeast Biodefense Center, the Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases comprising 28 private and public academic and public health institutions in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Within this consortium, his research focuses pathogen discovery, using unexplained hemorrhagic fever, febrile illness, encephalitis, and meningoencephalitis as targets. He is the Principal Investigator of the
Autism Birth Cohort, a unique international program that investigates the epidemiology and basis of neurodevelopmental disorders through analyses of a prospective birth cohort of 100,000 children and their parents. The ABC is examining gene-environment-timing interactions, biomarkers and the trajectory of normal development and disease. Lipkin also directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Diagnostics in
Zoonotic and Emerging Infectious Diseases, the only academic center, and one of two in the US (the other is CDC), that participates in
outbreak investigation for the
WHO.
In 1989, Lipkin was the first to identify a microbe (
Bornavirus) using purely molecular tools
[1]. Lipkin was employed by
University of California from 1990-2001. He began as Assistant Professor in the departments of
Neurology,
Anatomy and
Neurobiology, and
Microbiology and
Molecular Genetics. He advanced to full professor in under six years and was named as the first
Louise Turner Arnold Chair of Neuroscience before moving to
Columbia University.
In 1999, Lipkin led the team that identified the
West Nile virus in brains of
encephalitis victims in New York State
[2]. In April 2003, he sequenced a portion of the SARS virus directly from lung tissue, established a sensitive assay for infection, and hand carried 10,000 test kits to
Beijing at the height of the outbreak. As the first foreign consultant to gain the confidence of the
Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Science he was named Special Advisor to China for Research and International Cooperation in the Fight Against SARS and was instrumental in promoting disclosure and outside collaborations in
infectious disease research and
public health management. His position recognizes this extraordinary service, wherein Lipkin and his colleague Thomas Briese, traveling to Beijing at the height of the SARS outbreak at the request of the Chinese government, hand-carried 10,000 test kits to be used for identification and containment of infected individuals, and coordinated the national research efforts with
Chen Zhou, the current Minister of Health of China. Lipkin also serves on the boards of the
Guangzhou Institute for Biomedicine and Health, the
Institut Pasteur de Shanghai, and is Honorary Director of the
Beijing Infectious Disease Center. He became ill shortly after returning to the US and was
quarantined.
Lipkin is a member of Steering Committee of the
National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee (NBAS) and Champion (Chair),
Genomic Epidemiology and Digital Technologies Taskforce. The NBAS was established in response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21
(HSPD-21), "Public Health and Medical Preparedness."
He is Honorary Director of the Beijing Infectious Disease Center, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institut Pasteur de Shanghai and serves on boards of the Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Disease, the Guangzhou Institute for Biomedicine and Health, the
Consortium for Conservation Medicine, Tetragenetics, and 454 Life Sciences Corporation.
[edit] Honors
Throughout his career, Lipkin has been recognized for his service and ingenuity. He was awarded a NARSAD Young Investigator Award by the
National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression. Lipkin's work has since been recognized with the following honors:
NIH Clinical Investigator Development Award; Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences; Japanese Human Science Foundation Visiting Professor;
Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons Visiting Bruenn Professor;
University of California (UC)
Irvine Louise Turner Arnold Chair in the Neurosciences; American Society of Microbiology Foundation Lecturer; UC Irvine Distinguished Lecturer;
Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Global Infectious Disease; Millennium Commencement Speaker,
Sarah Lawrence College; Dalldorf Research Physician NY State Department of Health; Fellow of the NY Academy of Sciences; Distinguished Lecturer of the National Center for Infectious Diseases,
Centers for Disease Control; Honorary and Founding Director,
Beijing Center for Infectious Diseases; Fellow,
American Society for Microbiology;Columbia University Jerome L. and Dawn Greene Professor of Epidemiology; Columbia University John Snow Professor of Epidemiology; Scientific American,
Top 25 Science Stories of 2007. He was the Founding Chair, Scientific Advisory Board,
Cure Autism Now (merged with
Autism Speaks, 2007); Featured Investigator,
NIAID Discovery News, 2008
A Microbe Hunter to the World; Distinguished Lecturer,
Pennsylvania State University; Distinguished Lecturer,
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; Distinguished Lecturer, Pennsylvania State University; Distinguished Speaker, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; Kinyoun Lecturer, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD, October 2009; Distinguished Lecturer, Center for Autism Research, Philadelphia, PA; The Courage Fund Visiting Professorship, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, November – December 2009; Fellow, Wildlife Conservation Society, 2009; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2009.
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