Jonathan Kipnis (Hebrew: יונתן קיפניס) is a neuroscientist, immunologist, and professor of pathology and immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine.

[5] 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.

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.

[12] 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.

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[15] 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.

[20][21] 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.

"[33] While initially covered by the Washington University student newspaper,[34] this incident was later corroborated in an independent investigation by Stat News.

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.