Jack W. Lipton, PhD

• Chair, Professor of Translational Neuroscience
• Associate Dean for Research Analytics

• Department of Translational Neuroscience
• Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
• Teaching Faculty, MSU Neuroscience Program

• Grand Rapids Research Center
• 400 Monroe Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
• Phone: 616.234.0950
• Fax: 616.234.0991
• liptonj@msu.edu

Biography

Dr. Lipton received his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and his doctorate in behavioral neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles. At Rush University in Chicago, his research focused on strategies for dopamine cell transplantation as a therapeutic for Parkinson’s disease and the consequences of prenatal drug exposure on dopamine system development.

In 2004, Dr. Lipton moved to the University of Cincinnati, where he established the Division of Neuropharmacology in the Department of Psychiatry. While there, he and his colleagues were awarded a Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence in Parkinson’s Disease Research. Dr. Lipton transferred this center to Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine (CHM) in 2009. At MSU, he founded the Department of Translational Neuroscience, housed in the Grand Rapids Innovation Park. Under his continued leadership as founding chair, the department has been awarded over $100 million in research support, ranking it among the top research-intensive biomedical units at MSU.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Lipton and his team proposed, developed, and operationalized a saliva-based test. This work led to the MSU Early Detection Program, which he led for testing faculty, staff, and students until its conclusion in May of 2022. He successfully lobbied for federal regulatory changes that allowed universities to test for COVID-19 outside the strictures of CLIA. Dr. Lipton has advocated that universities should play a key role in national biomedical disaster preparedness through op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Hill. He has also discussed this work in multiple national media appearances, including on MSNBC, Peacock, NPR, and Fox News.

Dr. Lipton has and continues to be an advocate for faculty through shared governance. He has served as a liaison to the MSU board of Trustees, the chair of the University Committee on Academic Governance, vice-chair and chair of the Faculty Senate, and continues to serve as an at-large faculty senator and board liaison.

In 2024, Dr. Lipton was appointed Associate Dean for Research Analytics. In this role within the CHM Office of Research, he works with the Senior Associate Dean for Research and MSU’s Vice President of Research and Innovation. His accomplishments include the university-wide integration of ORCiD for MSU researchers, and the Tetrad Initiative for Interdisciplinary Research to “crowd-fund” promising research projects and foster inter-college collaboration. He continues to empower faculty and unit leaders with novel data analytics using machine learning, helping them predict and improve scholarly performance and navigate the hypercompetitive extramural funding climate.

• Lipton Lab
• Dr. Lipton's Pub Med publications

Education

Research Interests

Dr. Lipton’s laboratory works in collaboration with faculty from the MSU PD Research Team.  His laboratory supports initiatives on neural transplantation therapies, pharmacokinetic studies of investigational drugs, gene therapy, deep brain stimulation, and etiology of PD.  Dr. Lipton’s laboratory has also had a long research history examining the central nervous system changes produced by developmental exposure to drugs of abuse, including cocaine and ecstasy.

Technical Expertise

• Primary and cell line neuronal culture
• ELISA
• LC/MS
• HPLC (electrochemical, fluorescence and ultraviolet)
• Western Blot
• Real Time RT-PCR
• Taqman Low Density Arrays
• Radiometric organ blood flow measures
• Direct tissue autoradiography/homogenate receptor binding
• Stereotaxic surgery