Mady Hornig

Who is Mady Hornig?

Mady Hornig, MD is a psychiatrist and an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, where she is Director of Translational Research in the Center for Infection and Immunity. A physician-scientist, her research involves clinical, epidemiological, and animal model research on autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions. She directs the clinical core of an international investigation of the role of Borna disease virus in human mental illness and participates as a key investigator for the Autism Birth Cohort project, a large prospective epidemiological study, based in Norway, that is identifying how genes and timing interact with environmental agents preceding the onset of autism spectrum diagnoses. In 2006, she was appointed as Guest Professor at the School of Basic Medical Science of Beijing University in Beijing, China.

Hornig has been described as an "anti-mercury activist". Along with CII director W. Ian Lipkin and colleague Thomas Briese, she is currently investigating measles virus RNA sequences in bowel biopsies of children with autism spectrum disorders. Formulating a "three strikes" model of causation that integrates genetics, the environment and developmental neurobiology, Hornig posits that some cases of autism may represent the unfortunate coincidence of genetic vulnerability and exposure to environmental factors at a critical period of brain development. She is examining how brain damage from infections, immune system dysfunction, neurotoxins, and other chemical or psychosocial stress factors, or host responses to these environmental agents, can lead to neurodevelopmental and other central nervous system disorders, thereby contributing to autism, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorders, and mood disorders.