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W. Ian Lipkin

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W. Ian Lipkin
File:WILCUHeadshot.png
Born1952 (age 72–73)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
EducationUniversity of Chicago Laboratory School
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

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 the 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.

Education

Lipkin was born in Chicago, Illinois where he attended the University of Chicago Laboratory School and was President of the Student Board in 1969. Looking to originally become a cultural anthropologist,[1] he relocated to New York and earned his BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 1974. During his time at Sarah Lawrence, "I felt that if I went straight into cultural anthropology after college I’d be a parasite. I’d go someplace, take information about myths and ritual, and have nothing to offer. So I decided to become a medical anthropologist and try to bring back traditional medicines. Suddenly I found myself in medical school." Returning back to his hometown Chicago, Lipkin earned his MD from Rush Medical College, in 1978. In the immediate years thereafter, he was a clinical clerk at the UCL Institute of Neurology in Queen Square, London and an Intern in medicine at University of Pittsburgh (1978–1979), completed a Residency in Medicine at University of Washington (1979–1981), and completed 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 under the mentorship of Michael Oldstone and Floyd Bloom. In his six years at Scripps, Lipkin became a Senior Research Associate upon completing his postdoctoral work and was President of the Scripps' Society of Fellows in 1987.

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 for the Center for Research in Diagnostics and Discovery (CRDD), under the NIH Centers of Excellence for Translational Research program.[2] The CRDD brings together leading investigators in microbial and human genetics, engineering, microbial ecology and public health to develop insights into mechanisms of disease and methods for detecting infectious agents, characterizing microflora and identifying biomarkers that can be used to guide clinical management. Lipkin was previously the Director of the Northeast Biodefense Center,[3] the Regional Center of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases which comprised 28 private and public academic and public health institutions in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Within this consortium, his research focused on pathogen discovery, using unexplained hemorrhagic fever, febrile illness, encephalitis, and meningoencephalitis as targets. He is the Principal Investigator of the Autism Birth Cohort,[4] 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.[5][6] 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.[7][8] 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[9] 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 Zhu, the former Minister of Health of China. Lipkin also serves on the boards of the Guangzhou Institute for Biomedicine and Health GIBH, 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. Most recently, Lipkin was the sole external investigator invited by the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia to assist in identifying reservoirs and vectors for transmission of the MERS coronavirus. His team was the first to isolate live virus in camels, discovered it was the same virus as was found in humans, determined that a majority of Saudi camels carry antibodies to the virus, and that it has been circulating in camel populations for at least 20 years.[10]

Lipkin was co-chair of CDC Steering Committee of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee (NBAS).[11] The NBAS was established in response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 21 (HSPD-21),[12] "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 EcoHealth Alliance,[13] Tetragenetics, and 454 Life Sciences Corporation.

Lipkin served as a science consultant for the film Contagion.[14] The film has been praised for its scientific accuracy.

Awards, and honors

  • Featured Investigator, NIAID Discovery News, 2008 A Microbe Hunter to the World[15]
  • 2014 Mendel Medal recipient.[16]

References

  1. ^ "Ian Lipkin The Virus Hunter, Discovery Magazine, April 2012" (PDF).
  2. ^ "Centers of Excellence for Translational Research". nih.gov.
  3. ^ http://njms.rutgers.edu/research/rbl/nbc.cfm
  4. ^ http://abc.columbia.edu
  5. ^ Ian Lipkin, W.; Travis, G. H.; Carbone, K. M.; Wilson, M. C. (1990). "Isolation and Characterization of Borna Disease Agent cDNA Clones". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 87 (11): 4184–4188. doi:10.1073/pnas.87.11.4184. JSTOR 2354914. PMC 54072. PMID 1693432.
  6. ^ Lipkin, W. I. (2010). "Microbe Hunting". Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. 74 (3): 363–377. doi:10.1128/MMBR.00007-10. ISSN 1092-2172. PMC 2937520.
  7. ^ Briese, Thomas; Jia, Xi-Yu; Huang, Cinnia; Grady, Leo J; Lipkin, W Ian (1999). "Identification of a Kunjin/West Nile-like flavivirus in brains of patients with New York encephalitis". The Lancet. 354 (9186): 1261–2. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(99)04576-6. PMID 10520637.
  8. ^ Zimmer, Carl (23 November 2010). "SCIENTIST AT WORK: DR. W. IAN LIPKIN; A Man From Whom Viruses Can't Hide". The New York Times. p. 1.
  9. ^ "Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China". most.gov.cn.
  10. ^ Abdulaziz N. Alagaili. "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Infection in Dromedary Camels in Saudi Arabia". asm.org.
  11. ^ "Dr. W. Ian Lipkin Named Co-Chair of CDC Subcommittee". 15 July 2010.
  12. ^ "Homeland Security Presidential Directive". archives.gov. 18 October 2007.
  13. ^ "Home - EcoHealth Alliance". ecohealthalliance.org.
  14. ^ Columbia University MSPH At The Frontline Newsletter
  15. ^ "Villanova University Awards 2014 Mendel Medal to World-Renowned Epidemiologist W. Ian Lipkin, MD". villanova.edu.
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