Jonathan Lifshitz, Ph.D.

Jonathan Lifshitz, Ph.D.

Jonathan Lifshitz, Ph.D. received a B.S. in neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles and Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. After NRSA-funded post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and Virginia Commonwealth University, in 2007 he joined the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center (SCoBIRC) at the University of Kentucky as an assistant professor in Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. In 2012, he became the Director of Translational Neurotrauma Research at the Barrow Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in conjunction with the Department of Child Health at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine – Phoenix.

His laboratory investigates traumatic brain injury as a series of events that dismantle circuits in the brain and in response repair those injured circuits. Unfortunately, repair occurs without the elegant sequence found in development and disorganized circuits form. These disorganized circuits form the basis for neurological conditions associated with brain injury. Lifshitz’s research group pursues mechanisms of circuit dismantling and reorganization that lead to sensory sensitivity, seizure, endocrine dysfunction and sleep disorders.

His research is supported by numerous Federal extramural grants and collaborative studies around the world. He is an active member in the National Neurotrauma Society (past treasurer and chair of the Strategic Planning Committee) and local Society for Neuroscience Chapters.