W. Ian Lipkin, MD, is the Director and Principal Investigator of the Jerome L. and Dawn Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and Professor of Neurology and Pathology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Lipkin is Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of the Northeast Biodefense Center, an NIH sponsored regional center of excellence in emerging infectious diseases research comprising private and public academic and public health institutions in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He is a member of the WHO Laboratory Surveillance Network, and Special Advisor to China for Research and International Cooperation in the Fight Against SARS.

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 (1981-84); and Fellowship in Neurovirology and Molecular Neurobiology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla (1984-1990). In 1990 he joined the faculty at the University of California Irvine as an Assistant Professor of Neurology, Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. He advanced to the level of Professor in these departments in 1996 and became Director of the Emerging Diseases Laboratory and the Louise Turner Arnold Chair of Neuroscience before moving to Columbia University in July 2002.

While a Resident in Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, 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 at The Scripps Research Institute, 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 like autism and schizophrenia; it may also play a role in neurodegenerative disorders. To address such questions Dr. Lipkin established molecular methods for rapidly detecting unknown viruses in clinical materials. 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 the molecular basis of behavioral syndromes associated with infection. This work is the foundation of an international program focused on assessing the role of viruses in human CNS diseases and establishing repositories of clinical materials for biomarker analyses. In 1999 Dr. Lipkin led the team that used high throughput molecular methods to identify the West Nile virus in brains of encephalitis victims in New York State.

Dr. Lipkin's honors include: National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellowship (1984-1987); President, Society of Fellows, Research Institute of Scripps Clinic (1986-1987); 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); Sabbatical Professor, Institut für Virologie und Immunbiologie, Universität Würzburg (1996);

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, (2001-2003); Distinguished Lecturer, Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics, University of California Irvine (2003); and Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Global Infectious Disease (2001-2005).

Under Dr. Lipkin's direction the Greene Laboratory investigates the role of infectious agents and immune responses in acute and chronic CNS diseases through molecular epidemiology and studies of animal models, and implements molecular systems for global surveillance of emerging viral diseases in humans, domestic animals, and wildlife. Current research in rodent models focuses on neurodevelopmental consequences of gestational and early postnatal direct and indirect (maternal) exposure to toxins (organic mercury), viruses (Bornavirus, double stranded RNA), or bacteria (streptococci).  Population-based research includes: (i) a program based in the US, Poland, and Australia, designed to establish repositories of clinical materials for biochemical and molecular analyses and assess the role of viruses in human affective disorders and schizophrenia; and (ii) a program focused on autism pathogenesis and epidemiology based in an ongoing, prospective cohort of 100,000 pregnancies in Norway (the Mother and Child Cohort Study ( Mor & Barn undersøkelsen [ MoBa ]). Dr. Lipkin has a longstanding interest in and commitment to autism research and treatment. He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Cure Autism Now Foundation from 1997 through 2000, and served as Chair from 1998-2000.