Ian Lipkin

Walter Ian Lipkin, or W. Ian Lipkin, MD, is a researcher at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, United States.

Interviews

 * Discover Interview: The World's Most Celebrated Virus Hunter, Ian Lipkin
 * Discover - Health & Medicine By Grant Delin


 * "When Ian Lipkin chose a career in infectious diseases, he envisioned hunting for pathogens in daring treks around the world. Though disappointed to learn that modern-day virus hunters work largely from the lab, he still wound up a pioneer."


 * Forgotten Plague documentary by Ryan Prior

ME/CFS Research

 * 2017, Fecal metagenomic profiles in subgroups of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (FULL TEXT)"Abstract - Background: Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is characterized by unexplained persistent fatigue, commonly accompanied by cognitive dysfunction, sleep disturbance, orthostatic intolerance, fever, lymphadenopathy, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The extent to which the gastrointestinal microbiome and peripheral inflammation are associated with ME/CFS remains unclear. We pursued rigorous clinical characterization, fecal bacterial metagenomics, and plasma immune molecule analyses in 50 ME/CFS patients and 50 healthy controls frequency-matched for age, sex, race/ethnicity, geographic site, and season of sampling. Results: Topological analysis revealed associations between IBS co-morbidity, body mass index, fecal bacterial composition, and bacterial metabolic pathways but not plasma immune molecules. IBS co-morbidity was the strongest driving factor in the separation of topological networks based on bacterial profiles and metabolic pathways. Predictive selection models based on bacterial profiles supported findings from topological analyses indicating that ME/CFS subgroups, defined by IBS status, could be distinguished from control subjects with high predictive accuracy. Bacterial taxa predictive of ME/CFS patients with IBS were distinct from taxa associated with ME/CFS patients without IBS. Increased abundance of unclassified Alistipes and decreased Faecalibacterium emerged as the top biomarkers of ME/CFS with IBS; while increased unclassified Bacteroides abundance and decreased Bacteroides vulgatus were the top biomarkers of ME/CFS without IBS. Despite findings of differences in bacterial taxa and metabolic pathways defining ME/CFS subgroups, decreased metabolic pathways associated with unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis and increased atrazine degradation pathways were independent of IBS co-morbidity. Increased vitamin B6 biosynthesis/salvage and pyrimidine ribonucleoside degradation were the top metabolic pathways in ME/CFS without IBS as well as in the total ME/CFS cohort. In ME/CFS subgroups, symptom severity measures including pain, fatigue, and reduced motivation were correlated with the abundance of distinct bacterial taxa and metabolic pathways. Conclusions: Independent of IBS, ME/CFS is associated with dysbiosis and distinct bacterial metabolic disturbances that may influence disease severity. However, our findings indicate that dysbiotic features that are uniquely ME/CFS-associated may be masked by disturbances arising from the high prevalence of IBS co-morbidity in ME/CFS. These insights may enable more accurate diagnosis and lead to insights that inform the development of specific therapeutic strategies in ME/CFS subgroups."
 * 2016, Cytokine network analysis of cerebrospinal fluid in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome."Abstract: 'Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome is an unexplained debilitating disorder that is frequently associated with cognitive and motor dysfunction. We analyzed cerebrospinal fluid from 32 cases, 40 subjects with multiple sclerosis and 19 normal subjects frequency-matched for age and sex using a 51-plex cytokine assay. Group-specific differences were found for the majority of analytes with an increase in cases of CCL11 (eotaxin), a chemokine involved in eosinophil recruitment. Network analysis revealed an inverse relationship between interleukin 1 receptor antagonist and colony-stimulating factor 1, colony-stimulating factor 2 and interleukin 17F, without effects on interleukin 1α or interleukin 1β, suggesting a disturbance in interleukin 1 signaling. Our results indicate a markedly disturbed immune signature in the cerebrospinal fluid of cases that is consistent with immune activation in the central nervous system, and a shift toward an allergic or T-helper type-2 pattern associated with autoimmunity.'"


 * 2015, Distinct plasma immune signatures in ME/CFS are present early in the course of illness  FULL TEXT"'Abstract: Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is an unexplained incapacitating illness that may affect up to 4 million people in the United States alone. There are no validated laboratory tests for diagnosis or management despite global efforts to find biomarkers of disease. We considered the possibility that inability to identify such biomarkers reflected variations in diagnostic criteria and laboratory methods as well as the timing of sample collection during the course of the illness. Accordingly, we leveraged two large, multicenter cohort studies of ME/CFS to assess the relationship of immune signatures with diagnosis, illness duration, and other clinical variables. Controls were frequency-matched on key variables known to affect immune status, including season of sampling and geographic site, in addition to age and sex. We report here distinct alterations in plasma immune signatures early in the course of ME/CFS (n = 52) relative to healthy controls (n = 348) that are not present in subjects with longer duration of illness (n = 246). Analyses based on disease duration revealed that early ME/CFS cases had a prominent activation of both pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines as well as dissociation of intercytokine regulatory networks. We found a stronger correlation of cytokine alterations with illness duration than with measures of illness severity, suggesting that the immunopathology of ME/CFS is not static. These findings have critical implications for discovery of interventional strategies and early diagnosis of ME/CFS.'"
 * 2012, A Multicenter Blinded Analysis Indicates No Association between Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and either Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus-Related Virus or Polytropic Murine Leukemia Virus (FULL TEXT)

XMRV
The scientist who put the nail in XMRV's coffin

Nature By Ewen Callaway

"A study published today has found no evidence to support research linking the retroviruses XMRV2 and pMLV3 to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The US$2.3-million study, funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), comes three years after a link between XMRV and CFS was first reported in Science."

Lawsuit
On May 18th, 2017, Mady Hornig brought a lawsuit against the Trustees of Columbia University and Walter Ian Lipkin in NY City court. A jury trial was demanded under Complaint 17 CV 3602. Discriminatory and retaliatory acts (Item 22), blocking of ME/CFS research (Item 157), misappropriation of funds (Item 225), and many other complaints impacting ME/CFS research.

Media & Science journal coverage

 * May 23, 2017: Lawsuit at Columbia University roils prominent chronic fatigue syndrome research lab Science Magazine


 * May 20, 2017: Columbia professor says boss made her inspect his butt New York Post

Online presence

 * The Microbe Discovery Project (crowdfunding project)
 * Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Learn more

 * Wikipedia - W. Ian Lipkin


 * Ian Lipkin: Three to Five Years* to Solve Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)


 * Simmaron Research By Cort Johnson


 * "Ian Lipkin flew to Lake Tahoe this December to fund raise for work he’s doing with the Simmaron Research Foundation. In a talk covering his virus hunting career, the threat of pathogens to humanity, and his work with chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), he dropped a bombshell: he stated that he believes it’s possible to solve ME/CFS in three to five years."


 * Ian Lipkin Gets ME/CFS Grant – and So Do Others: the NIH Grants of 2015


 * Pro-Health By Cort Johnson


 * "Ian Lipkin gets a big grant and so did some others. (Could the IOM and P2P reports have prompted this little flurry of interest?)"


 * Drs Lipkin, Mady Hornig and colleagues discover robust evidence that chronic fatigue syndrome is a biological illness


 * The Microbe Discovery Project


 * "Researchers at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health identified distinct immune changes in patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, known medically as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) or Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease."


 * 2015, Ian Lipkin, Mady Hornig - Chilli M.E. Challenge - YouTube

Reports that may have led to grants

 * Institute of Medicine report - IOM
 * Pathways to prevention report (P2P) - NIH