Jonathan Lifshitz, PhD

Creative Original - Neuroscientist, Inventor, Story Teller, Analogist, Mentor, Justice Warrior
Jonathan Lifshitz, PhD, leads the Neurotrauma & Social Impact research team as a joint venture between the University of Michigan Concussion Center, Michigan Medicine Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. He is appointed as a Michigan Impact Professor, a tenured Professor, and VA Research Health Scientist.
Research projects focus on investigative, restorative, and regenerative treatments for traumatic brain injury as it develops into chronic neurodegenerative disease. We investigate domestic violence, child abuse, gender imbalance, marital norms, and Veteran mental health, with focus on inflammation and circuit reorganization to detect and intervene. The goal is to train generations of investigators to apply rigorous data to work for social impact, including health and medical outcomes.
Dr. Lifshitz earned a Bachelors in Neuroscience from UCLA, a PhD in Neuroscience from University of Pennsylvania, and completed fellowships at UPenn and VCU. He leads local, state, and federal funded projects, including ones on cognitive rehabilitation, cardiovascular risk factors, vital imaging, neuroinflammation, and TBI during pregnancy. Currently, he is the scientific director for regional and national consortia to understand TBI arising from domestic violence. He serves on shared governance bodies at his institutions, chaired statewide councils, and serves on national and international professional societies. He reviews grants for national institutes.
He has led an academic research lab for two decades, primarily involving animal models of human disease. He has trained scientists at all levels and backgrounds to achieve their individual professional goals.

Dr. Lifshitz’s research has focused on cutting-edge research topics that advance the field — including mitochondria involvement in neuropathology, amygdala-dependent affective behavior, sensory sensitivity, objective signs of TBI, neuroinflammation, cognitive rehabilitation and peripheral inflammation. More than 100 peer-reviewed publications represent a body of work that includes basic mechanism, translational investigation, health care data analysis, and topics of social impact related to health care disparities. [PubMed Bibliography] [Google Scholar]
Major contributions to science include:
- Defined the Fencing Response as a TBI indicator, which is recognized through social media as a positive sign of concussion.
- Identification of rod microglia in neurodegenerative disease, with projects to develop molecular tools to interrogate, isolate and intervene.
- Defined post-traumatic sleep as an indicator of brain injury progression.
- Leading translational and community efforts regarding TBI in domestic violence.
- Investigating the consequences of TBI during pregnancy with a focus on transgenerational effects on neurodevelopment.
- Employing miniature microscopes (miniscopes) to understand post-injury pharmacokinetics, vascular dysfunction, and pathodynamics.
- Investigating novel spatial navigation as cognitive rehabilitation for TBI in the laboratory and clinic.