Jonathan Lifshitz, PhD, serves as the Director of the Translational Neurotrauma Research Program, which is a joint venture through BARROW Neurological Institute at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the Department of Child Health at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care System.
In 2007, he joined the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center (SCoBIRC) at the University of Kentucky as faculty. In 2012, he was recruited to direct Translational Neurotrauma Research in Phoenix with the vision to improve quality of life for those with acquired neurological injury.
His research questions primarily investigate traumatic brain injury as a disease process that dismantles, repairs and regenerates circuits in the brain. The underlying principle is that adaptive repair and regeneration fail, leaving a miswired brain and neurological impairments that decrease quality of life. Dr. Lifshitz takes great pride in his trainees, who work together in animal, translational and clinical investigations.
The Translational Neurotrauma Research Program is supported by Federal extramural grants, institutional funds and philanthropic donations. He has won five national or international awards for his research on traumatic brain injury and an NCAA/DOD Mind Matters Challenge for Concussion Education. He has more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, in addition to other monographs and book chapters. He is the inventor of two awarded patents, two submitted patents and two patents in process. He serves on the Arizona Governor’s Council on Spinal and Head Injury and is the Lead Scientist and Director of Research and Development for the CACTIS Foundation. He has served or currently serves in leadership roles for: the National Neurotrauma Society; the Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) Service Scientific Merit Review Board of the VA; and the Scientific Review Study Sections for the National Institutes of Health.