Michael L. Lipton, MD, PhD, Joins Columbia Radiology

We are excited to announce that Michael L. Lipton, MD, PhD, has joined the Department of Radiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) as professor of radiology. Lipton is a neuroradiologist with a clinical focus on developing advanced quantitative MRI techniques to enhance the characterization of brain diseases. He is world-renowned for his research on repeated subconcussive head impacts in sports, particularly in soccer players.

Lipton is also widely known for his educational contributions to the field of radiology, specifically by making MRI physics education accessible through his 30 hour course, Introducing MRI and his book, Totally Accessible MRI: A User's Guide to Principles, Technology, and Applications.

"Dr. Lipton is an extremely accomplished clinician-scientist, and his joining us will be transformational for neuroimaging research at CUIMC," said Diego Jaramillo, MD, MPH, professor of radiology and interim department chair. "He is brilliant, wise, and generous with his knowledge and we are honored to have him be a member of our department."

A new, five-year, NIH-funded study to be led by Lipton at CUIMC will assess the competing effects of fitness and head impacts on the brain by looking at soccer players, nonathletes, and athletes who never participated in contact sports. The study builds on a decade of research in which Lipton and his team found that adult amateur soccer players who head the ball more than a thousand times in a year exhibit structural brain changes and poorer cognitive performance than those who head much less or not at all. His research has also shown that heading affects women's brains more than men's, as well as those with gene variants, including APOE e4.

In a second NIH-funded study, Lipton and co-principal investigator Johanna Daily, MD, MS, professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, are studying brain changes due to COVID-19 in adults who had mild or asymptomatic infection. This study uniquely addresses  a major limitation of research into post-acute COVID-19 by leveraging the contributions of hundreds individuals for whom Lipton has established baseline status prior to the pandemic.

Lipton received his Doctor of Medicine from Boston University, followed by a Master of Science with Distinction and his Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his diagnostic radiology residency, followed by a two-year fellowship in neuroradiology, at Montefiore Medical Center. In 2017, Lipton received the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research.