virology blog

About viruses and viral disease

columbia university

ME/CFS is not a psychosomatic illness

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W. Ian Lipkin, Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity and the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS at Columbia University, has written the following letter several days before the Fourth Annual Conference on Psychosomatics at Columbia University this weekend. The original letter can be found at this link.

18 October 2018

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

The Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) has been committed to ME/CFS research since 2010. We began this research with generous support from the Chronic Fatigue Initiative of the Hutchins Family Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Microbe Discovery Project.

In 2017, the CII was selected to host one of three NIH centers funded for collaborative research into the biology of this disease. The Center for Solutions for ME/CFS (CfS for ME/CFS) includes representatives from #MEAction and Solve ME/CFS as well as clinical and basic scientists drawn from leading academic institutions and clinical sites across the United States.

Our studies of blood, cerebrospinal fluid, saliva and feces, using state-of-the-art methods that include microbial gene sequencing, metabolomics, proteomics, and immunological profiling, confirm that patients with ME/CFS have biological abnormalities that cannot be characterized as psychosomatic.

Committees convened by the National Academies of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also concluded that ME/CFS is not a psychosomatic disorder.

We are committed to actively investigating the causes of immunological and metabolic abnormalities in ME/CFS. Our hope is that this work will enable insights that lead to treatments.

Sincerely,

W. Ian Lipkin, MD
Director, Center for Infection & Immunity
Director, Center or Solutions for ME/CFS

 

Understanding viruses

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Virology lecturesIf you want to understand life on Earth, you need to know about viruses.

We have reached the halfway point in my 2016 Columbia University undergraduate virology course. So far we have learned the basics of virus replication: how viruses enter cells, how the genome is reproduced, and how proteins are made and assembled into new virus particles. In the second half of the course, we will consider how viruses cause disease, how immune responses prevent infection, vaccines, antivirals, emergence of new viruses, and much more.

All of my lectures are recorded as videos and available freely on YouTube. Below is a list of the first thirteen lectures, with links to the YouTube videos. You can also subscribe to the videos at iTunes University. If you would like copies of the lecture slides and study questions, go to virology.ws/course.

Lecture 1: What is a virus?
Lecture 2: The infectious cycle
Lecture 3: Genomes and genetics
Lecture 4: Structure
Lecture 5: Attachment and entry
Lecture 6: RNA directed RNA synthesis
Lecture 7: Transcription and RNA processing
Lecture 8: DNA replication
Lecture 9: Reverse transcription and integration
Lecture 10: Translation
Lecture 11: Assembly
Lecture 12: Infection basics
Lecture 13: Intrinsic and innate defenses

 

Earth’s virology course for 2016

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Do you want to learn virology? Every spring I teach a virology course at Columbia University, and this year’s version has just started. I record every lecture and put the videos on YouTube. Here is a link to the playlist: Virology Lectures 2016. Lecture #1, What is a Virus, is embedded below as a teaser.

I strongly believe that the best approach to teaching introductory virology is by emphasizing shared principles. Studying the phases of the viral reproductive cycle, illustrated with a set of representative viruses, provides an overview of the steps required to maintain these infectious agents in nature. Such knowledge cannot be acquired by learning a collection of facts about individual viruses. Consequently, the major goal of my virology course is to define and illustrate the basic principles of animal virus biology.

You can find the complete course syllabus, pdf files of the slides, and reading at virology.ws/course.

My goal is to be Earth’s virology professor, and this is my virology course for the planet.

Virology for planet Earth

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Virology 2015It is the first week in May, which means that the spring semester has just ended at Columbia University, and my annual virology course is over.

Each year I teach an introductory undergraduate virology course that is organized around basic principles, including how virus particles are built, how they replicate, how they cause disease, and how to prevent infections. Some feel that it’s best to teach virology by virus: a lecture on influenza, herpesvirus, HIV, and on and on. But this approach is all wrong: you can’t learn virology by listening to lectures on a dozen different viruses. In the end all you will have is a list of facts but you won’t understand virology.

I record every one of my 26 introductory lectures as a videocast, and these are available on the course website, or on YouTube. If you have listened to my lectures before, you might be wondering what is new. I change about 10% of each lecture every year, updating the information and adding new figures. This year I’ve also added two new lectures, on on Ebolavirus and one on viral gene therapy.

Once you have taken my introductory course, then you will be ready for an advanced course on Viruses. A course in which we go into great detail on the replication, pathogenesis, and control of individual viruses. I am working on such a course and when it’s ready I’ll share it with everyone.

I want to be Earth’s virology professor, and this is my introductory virology course for the planet.

Ebola virus arrives in New York City

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This morning I received this email from President Lee Bollinger:

Dear fellow members of the Columbia community:

As you may have seen in the media, Dr. Craig Spencer is being treated for Ebola at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. Dr. Spencer, an emergency department physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, recently returned from a humanitarian mission with Doctors Without Borders to one of the outbreak areas in Western Africa. We admire and appreciate all of those willing to do this vital and selfless public health work around the globe.

It’s critical to bear in mind what our public health and infectious disease experts have emphasized – that the risk to people in New York City and at Columbia remains extremely low. If you or anyone has any concerns, please visit the University’s Ebola Preparedness site or the New York City Department of Health Ebola update page. You may also contact Student Health Services or Workforce Health and Safety for Faculty/Staff with Hospital Responsibilities.

We must keep Dr. Spencer in our thoughts and wish him a full and speedy recovery, as we do the vulnerable populations he serves. We will also continue to keep the Columbia community informed as we learn more from City, State, and Federal health officials.

Sincerely,
Lee C. Bollinger

The transition between incubation period (when there are no symptoms) and the first clinical signs is a dangerous period. During this time the patient may continue to move around in public despite having fever and other indications of infection. It will be important to trace as many of this physician’s contacts as possible, a difficult task in a city of over 8 million people. Apparently the physician traveled around the city, using the subways, the night before having a fever. Whether any virus is shed during this time, in amounts sufficient to infect others, is unknown, but could be determined by studying the contacts of such infected individuals.

Twenty-six lectures in virology

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Virology class 2014In the spring of each year I teach a virology course to undergraduates and masters students at Columbia University. I produce video recordings of all my lectures not only for students in the course, but for anyone else who is interested in learning about viruses.

You can find my virology lectures in several locations: at this blog and at iTunes University, where lecture slides are also available as pdf files, or at YouTube.

This is the fifth year that I have taught my virology course (current class is in the photo), and every version is different. This year, in addition to updating the material, I’ve added a new lecture on viral gene therapy, and include new lectures on immune defenses, viral virulence, acute and persistent infections.

The goal of my virology course is to provide an understanding of how viruses are built, how they replicate and evolve, how they cause disease, and how to prevent infection. The first half of the course explores the viral replication cycle, including attachment and entry, genome replication, protein synthesis, and assembly. In the second half of the course we explore viral pathogenesis: how viruses cause disease, defenses against infection, antivirals, vaccines, and much more. After taking the course, some students might want to become virologists. The course will also provide the knowledge required to make informed decisions about health issues such as immunization against viral infections.

If you have read this blog in the past you know that it is my goal to be Earth’s virology professor. I also teach two virology courses at Coursera (these are completed but the material is still accessible), and my colleagues in Mexico have translated my 2012 lectures into Spanish. Next year I plan to each a new virology course, focused on individual viruses, which will build upon knowledge obtained in my first offering – and of course you will be able to find the lectures online.