Dr. Jonathan Godbout PhD

Professor, Department of Neuroscience
Faculty Director, Chronic Brain Injury Program
Co-Director, NINDS T32
Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Columbus (OH) | USA

Dr. Godbout is a Professor of Neuroscience at the Ohio State University (OSU) Wexner Medical Center. He is the Faculty Director of the Chronic Brain Injury Program and a member of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research. Dr. Godbout has a B.S. (1996) and a Ph.D. (2001) from the University of Illinois-Urbana. Dr. Godbout’s background is in neuroscience, immunology, and behavior with specific expertise in neuroimmunology. As a Principal Investigator, Dr. Godbout aims to determine the degree to which the bi-directional communication between the immune system and brain is affected by aging, psychological stress, and traumatic brain injury. In addition, he aims to delineate the mechanism by which inflammatory signaling causes long-lasting behavioral and cognitive deficits. Since arriving at OSU in 2005, Dr. Godbout has been active in research, teaching/mentoring and service. For instance, Dr. Godbout is an author on over 116 publications and his research is/has been supported by grants from the NIH (NIA, NINDS & NIMH) and the Department of Defense (Focused Program). His laboratory has been productive and published several relevant and impactful “Neuroimmunology” and “Neurotrauma” papers, including reports in Journal of Neurotrauma, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, Journal of Neuroscience, Glia, Biological Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, Nature Immunology, and Immunity. Dr. Godbout is a dedicated mentor and he has guided the training of fourteen PhD degree students, two MD/PhD MSTP students and one Master’s degree student. Dr. Godbout is also active in the scientific community with membership in the National Neurotrauma Society (NNS) and PsychoNeuroImmunology Research Society (PNIRS), and the Society for Neuroscience. He serves on the Editorial Boards for the Journal of Neuroinflammation, Brain Behavior and Immunity, and is a Senior Editor at the Journal of Neurochemistry. In addition, Dr. Godbout is an active peer reviewer of papers and grants (DOD, NIH and Wings for Life). Last, Dr. Godbout has received several awards including the PNIRS New Investigator Award (2009), the Siddens Award for Distinguished Faculty Advising (2012), the Neuroscience Faculty Research Award (2013 & 2017), OSU Excellence in Research Award (2018) and Building Bridges Award in the OSU College of Engineering (2023).