Seminar – Jonathan Kipnis, PhD – “Anatomy of ‘Brainwashing’ and How It is Related to Brain Health”

Jonathan Kipnis, PhD
Washington University in St. Louis
Lab Website

About the Speaker: Dr. Jonathan (Jony) Kipnis is BJC Investigator, Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Immunology and Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Neurosurgery at Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine. He is also the inaugural Director of Brain immunology and Glia (BIG) Center at Washington University. Jony graduated from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, where he was Sir Charles Clore Scholar and a recipient of distinguished prize for scientific achievements awarded by the Israeli Parliament, The Knesset.

The Kipnis laboratory investigates the interactions between the immune system and the central nervous system, with a focus on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern brain function in health, aging, and neurological disease. His group demonstrated that normal brain function depends, in part, on an intact immune system and identified several cytokines as important neuromodulators. Most notably, his laboratory discovered the meningeal lymphatic vessels that drain the central nervous system into peripheral lymph nodes, revealing a direct anatomical link between the brain and the immune system. This finding reshaped the concept of central nervous system immune privilege and opened new avenues for studying neuroimmune interactions in health and disease, with implications for disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, autism, and age-related cognitive decline.

Dr. Kipnis is a member of National Academy of Medicine.

For Further Information, Contact: Clark Kellogg at kellogg@waisman.wisc.edu
The seminar series is funded by the John D. Wiley Conference Center Fund, the Friends of the Waisman Center and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) grant P50HD105353.