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Jonathan Kipnis
Nationality	Israeli, American
Alma mater	Weizmann Institute of Science, PhD Tel Aviv University, BS
Known for	discovery of brain lymphatic vessels
Scientific career
Fields	Neuroimmunology
Institutions	University of Virginia School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine
Doctoral advisor	Michal Schwartz
Website	Lab website

Jonathan Kipnis is a neuroscientist, immunologist, and professor of pathology and immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine. His lab studies interactions between the immune system and nervous system. He is best known for his lab's discovery of meningeal lymphatic vessels in humans and mice, which has impacted research on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis, neuropsychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and Rett syndrome.

Early life and education

Kipnis was born into a Jewish family in Tbilisi, Georgia. His father and maternal grandmother were both physicians and his mother was an academic with a focus in Russian literature and language. Surrounded by physicians, Kipnis knew from a young age that he wanted to cure diseases. He received his undergraduate degree in biology at Tel Aviv University in Ramat Aviv, Israel in 1998, and his Master's in neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel in 1999.

For his graduate training, Kipnis remained at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He first worked with Moshe Oren in cancer immunology, but was inspired by Michal Schwartz, to pursue a PhD in neuroimmunology. He joined Schwartz's lab the year that they discovered the therapeutic benefit of T cells in spinal cord and brain injury, a pioneering finding that began the study of the protective roles of autoimmunity in CNS disease. This was the beginning of Kipnis' career exploring the connections between the brain and the immune system.

In the Schwartz Lab, Kipnis' work focused on T cell based autoimmune reactions in CNS injury and neurodegeneration. Kipnis elucidated the pleiotropic roles of regulatory T cells in CNS injury versus CNS homeostasis. By depleting naturally occurring regulatory T cells after CNS injury, he was able to improve neuronal survival in mice. However, by up-regulating effector autoimmune T cells through immunization with CNS antigen, he was able to improve recovery after CNS injury. These results showed that the immune system's intrinsic mechanisms to protect against autoimmunity, might not be beneficial when insults demand autoimmune effector function for tissue maintenance.

Kipnis remained at the Weizmann for his postdoctoral training in Schwartz's lab. In this period he and other members of the lab, discovered that brain antigen specific T cells play a role in neurogenesis and cognitive functions, such as memory and spatial learning. This was one of the seminal findings showing that the immune system, through T cells, plays a role in cognition and brain homeostasis.

Career and research

Kipnis joined the University of Virginia School of Medicine (UVA) in 2007, where he later became a Harrison Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of neuroscience. He also directed the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG Center) at UVA. In 2019, he accepted an offer to join the Washington University School of Medicine faculty via the BJC Investigators Program. He is primarily appointed in the department of pathology and immunology, and secondarily in neurology, neuroscience, and neurosurgery. Kipnis is also a Gutenberg Forschungskolleg Fellow and supervises a working group at the University of Mainz.

Meningeal lymphatic vessels

Kipnis is credited with the 2014 discovery of meningeal lymphatic vessels, a recently discovered network of conventional lymphatic vessels located parallel to the dural sinuses and meningeal arteries of the mammalian central nervous system (CNS). As a part of the lymphatic system, the meningeal lymphatics are responsible for draining immune cells, small molecules, and excess fluid from the CNS and into the deep cervical lymph nodes. While it was initially believed that both the brain and meninges were devoid of lymphatic vasculature, the 2015 Nature paper by Jonathan Kipnis and his postdoctoral fellow Antoine Louveau reporting their discovery was cited more than 3000 times by 2022

His discovery of meningeal lymphatic vessels was included in Scientific American's "Top 10 Science Stories of 2015", Science Magazine's "Breakthrough of the Year", Huffington Post's "Eight Fascinating Things We Learned About the Mind in 2015" and the National Institutes of Health's director Francis Collins year end review.

Cytokines and behavior

Other research has included the 2015 discovery that the immune system directly affects social behavior and that IFN-gamma is necessary for social development. This expands upon his work as a graduate student, when he discovered that mice lacking T-cells had cognitive impairments.

His lab also elucidated the role of meningeal gamma delta (γδ) T cells in anxiety behavior,. finding that γδ T cells are resident in high numbers in the meningeal immune compartment, and that they actively transcribe the cytokine IL-17a at homeostasis. They further discovered that the release of IL-17a from γδ T cells was correlated with anxiety behavior in mice, finding high expression of IL-17a receptor in the prefrontal cortex glutamatergic neurons, and discovered that when they knocked down IL-17a receptor in cortical glutamatergic neurons, this recapitulated the anxiety phenotype in mice.

He and his group in 2015 investigated CD4+ T-cells protection and repair of neurons after injury to the spinal cord and brain. A collaboration with Kodi Ravichandran characterized the generation of neurons in adult brains and the removal of dead neurons by phagocytic cells.

In 2016, and his group identified type 2 innate lymphocytes in the meninges near the lymphatic vessels his lab previously discovered. These cells have previously have been found in the gut, which suggests a link between the brain and the microbiome. In mice, these cells were activated by IL-33 after spinal cord injury.

Awards and honors

Kipnis' work has been funded by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, National Institutes of Health, the Hartwell Foundation, and the Cure Alzheimer's Fund. In 2018, he was awarded the NIH's prestigious Director's Pioneer Award and $5.6 million in additional research funding.

• 2011 Robert Ader New Investigator Award
• 2011 PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society (PNIRS)
• 2012 Jordi Folch-Pi award, American Society for Neurochemistry
• 2014 Distinguished Research Career Development Award, University of Virginia
• 2015 Gutenberg Research College (GRC) fellowship, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
• 2016 Harrison Foundation Distinguished Teaching Professorship in Neuroscience
• 2016 MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer.
• 2018 NIH Director's Pioneer Award
• 2020 NIH/NIA MERIT Award
• 2022 Member, National Academy of Medicine

Controversies

Kipnis has drawn fire for discouraging a former graduate student from reporting allegations of sexual misconduct towards her supervising post-doctoral candidate, confirmed by screenshotted text messages, and did not report the incident to Title IX investigators, stating "You don’t need investigation now, even though you will most probably win." While initially covered by the Washington University student newspaper, this incident was later corroborated in an independent investigation by Stat News. Emails with lab members shared with Stat News also revealed concerns about the Kipnis lab’s drinking culture, which were the subject of a university investigation. Per the Stat News report, there has been controversy about the university potentially mishandling the case, evidenced by a letter from the medical school dean describing Kipnis as supportive and prompt in his response and that failure to reach out to Title IX office was the result of incorrect advice from a program administrator as well as lax enforcement of Washington University School of Medicine's mandatory reporting system.

Select publications

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (June 2023)

References

1. ^ Tamara Bhandari (2019-11-13). "Kipnis named BJC Investigator". Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
2. ^ "NIH, Scientific American, Science salute UVA brain discovery". Retrieved 22 December 2016.
3. "Lymphatic Vessels in Brain Provide New Route to Treat MS | GEN". GEN. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
4. "Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, recipient of the 2018 Pioneer in Medicine - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
5. ^ "Jonathan Kipnis, PhD | Pathology & Immunology | Washington University in St. Louis". pathology.wustl.edu. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
6. "Moshe Oren". Rett Syndrome Research Trust Blog. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
7. "Immune System Maintains Brain Health - The Scientist Magazine". Retrieved 22 December 2016.
8. "Jonathan Kipnis on discovering the brain's lymphatic system". Neuro Central. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
9. Schwartz, Michal; Kipnis, Jonathan (2005-06-15). "Protective autoimmunity and neuroprotection in inflammatory and noninflammatory neurodegenerative diseases". Journal of the Neurological Sciences. 233 (1–2): 163–166. doi:10.1016/j.jns.2005.03.014. ISSN 0022-510X. PMID 15949502. S2CID 549851.
10. ^ Kipnis, Jonathan; Mizrahi, Tal; Hauben, Ehud; Shaked, Iftach; Shevach, Ethan; Schwartz, Michal (2002-11-26). "Neuroprotective autoimmunity: naturally occurring CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells suppress the ability to withstand injury to the central nervous system". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 99 (24): 15620–15625. Bibcode:2002PNAS...9915620K. doi:10.1073/pnas.232565399. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 137766. PMID 12429857.
11. Ziv, Yaniv; Ron, Noga; Butovsky, Oleg; Landa, Gennady; Sudai, Einav; Greenberg, Nadav; Cohen, Hagit; Kipnis, Jonathan; Schwartz, Michal (February 2006). "Immune cells contribute to the maintenance of neurogenesis and spatial learning abilities in adulthood". Nature Neuroscience. 9 (2): 268–275. doi:10.1038/nn1629. ISSN 1097-6256. PMID 16415867. S2CID 205430936.
12. "The vital link between your immune system and brain". www.macleans.ca. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
13. ^ "Jonathan Kipnis, Ph.D." Retrieved 22 December 2016.
14. "Newsdetail - Universitätsmedizin Mainz - 165". 22 October 2015. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
15. Louveau, Antoine; Smirnov, Igor; Keyes, Timothy J.; Eccles, Jacob D.; Rouhani, Sherin J.; Peske, J. David; Derecki, Noel C.; Castle, David; Mandell, James W.; Lee, Kevin S.; Harris, Tajie H.; Kipnis, Jonathan (16 July 2015). "Structural and functional features of central nervous system lymphatic vessels". Nature. 523 (7560): 337–341. Bibcode:2015Natur.523..337L. doi:10.1038/nature14432. PMC 4506234. PMID 26030524.
16. "Media coverage of our discoveries". Archived from the original on 24 September 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
17. "Shocking New Role Found for the Immune System: Controlling Social Interactions". 13 July 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
18. Filiano, Anthony J.; Xu, Yang; Tustison, Nicholas J.; Marsh, Rachel L.; Baker, Wendy; Smirnov, Igor; Overall, Christopher C.; Gadani, Sachin P.; Turner, Stephen D.; Weng, Zhiping; Peerzade, Sayeda Najamussahar; Chen, Hao; Lee, Kevin S.; Scott, Michael M.; Beenhakker, Mark P.; Litvak, Vladimir; Kipnis, Jonathan (21 July 2016). "Unexpected role of interferon-γ in regulating neuronal connectivity and social behaviour". Nature. 535 (7612): 425–429. Bibcode:2016Natur.535..425F. doi:10.1038/nature18626. PMC 4961620. PMID 27409813.
19. Kipnis, Jonathan; Cohen, Hagit; Cardon, Michal; Ziv, Yaniv; Schwartz, Michal (25 May 2004). "T cell deficiency leads to cognitive dysfunction: Implications for therapeutic vaccination for schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions". PNAS. 101 (21): 8180–8185. Bibcode:2004PNAS..101.8180K. doi:10.1073/pnas.0402268101. PMC 419577. PMID 15141078.
20. Alves de Lima, Kalil; Rustenhoven, Justin; Da Mesquita, Sandro; Wall, Morgan; Salvador, Andrea Francesca; Smirnov, Igor; Martelossi Cebinelli, Guilherme; Mamuladze, Tornike; Baker, Wendy; Papadopoulos, Zach; Lopes, Maria Beatriz (November 2020). "Meningeal γδ T cells regulate anxiety-like behavior via IL-17a signaling in neurons". Nature Immunology. 21 (11): 1421–1429. doi:10.1038/s41590-020-0776-4. ISSN 1529-2916. PMC 8496952. PMID 32929273. S2CID 221723200.
21. "Immune Cell Signaling to the Brain Regulates Anxiety-Like Behaviors". GEN - Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. 2020-09-16. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
22. "Immune system may trigger anxiety in response to infection". www.medicalnewstoday.com. 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
23. "Immune Cell and Its Cytokine Control Exploratory Behavior in Mice". The Scientist Magazine®. Retrieved 2021-01-03.
24. Walsh, James T.; Hendrix, Sven; Boato, Francesco; Smirnov, Igor; Zheng, Jingjing; Lukens, John R.; Gadani, Sachin; Hechler, Daniel; Gölz, Greta; Rosenberger, Karen; Kammertöns, Thomas; Vogt, Johannes; Vogelaar, Christina; Siffrin, Volker; Radjavi, Ali; Fernandez-Castaneda, Anthony; Gaultier, Alban; Gold, Ralf; Kanneganti, Thirumala-Devi; Nitsch, Robert; Zipp, Frauke; Kipnis, Jonathan (2 February 2015). "MHCII-independent CD4 T cells protect injured CNS neurons via IL-4". J Clin Invest. 125 (2): 699–714. doi:10.1172/JCI76210. PMC 4319416. PMID 25607842.
25. "Researchers helps explain how the adult brain cleans out dead brain cells and produces new ones". 10 August 2011. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
26. "UVA discovers powerful defenders of the brain -- with big implications for disease". Retrieved 22 December 2016.
27. Gadani, Sachin P.; Smirnov, Igor; Smith, Ashtyn T.; Overall, Christopher C.; Kipnis, Jonathan (16 December 2016). "Characterization of meningeal type 2 innate lymphocytes and their response to CNS injury". The Journal of Experimental Medicine. 214 (2): 285–296. doi:10.1084/jem.20161982. PMC 5294864. PMID 27994070.
28. "SFARI". Retrieved 22 December 2016.
29. "UVA researcher wins national award, funding". Archived from the original on 2018-10-04. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
30. "Archived copy" (PDF). January 13, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2020-01-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
31. "UVA's Jonathan Kipnis Receives Prestigious NIH Director's Pioneer Award". UVA Today. 2018-10-02. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
32. "National Academy of Medicine Elects 100 New Members". National Academy of Medicine. 17 October 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
33. ^ "'I'm just disgusted': How alleged sexual misconduct stole one student's passion for academic science". STAT News. 2023-01-24. Retrieved 2023-01-24.
34. "Alleged sexual misconduct and support system failures cause graduate student to drop her WU PhD degree - Student Life". Student Life - The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis. 2022-12-07. Retrieved 2022-12-08.
35. "Kipnis J PubMed Publications". Retrieved June 9, 2023.

• Living people
• Israeli neuroscientists
• American neuroscientists
• University of Virginia School of Medicine faculty
• Washington University School of Medicine faculty
• Tel Aviv University alumni
• Weizmann Institute of Science alumni
• Members of the National Academy of Medicine