Takao K. Hensch

Takao K. Hensch is joint Professor of Neurology (Children's Hospital Boston) at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology (Center for Brain Science) at Harvard University. After his undergraduate studies on sleep mechanisms with Dr. J Allan Hobson at Harvard, he was a student of Dr. Masao Ito at the Univ Tokyo (MPH) and Fulbright Fellow with Dr. Wolf Singer at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, prior to receiving a PhD in Neuroscience working with Dr. Michael Stryker from the University of California San Francisco in 1996. He then helped to launch the RIKEN Brain Science Institute as Lab Head for Neuronal Circuit Development and has served as Group Director since 2000.

Hensch's research focuses on critical periods in brain development. By applying cellular and molecular biology techniques to neural systems, he identified inhibitory circuits that orchestrate the structural and functional rewiring of connections in response to early sensory experience. His work impacts not only basic understanding of brain development, but also the potential treatment for devastating cognitive disorders in adulthood. Hensch has received several honors, including the Tsukahara Prize (Japan Brain Science Foundation); Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) Prize; NIH Director's Pioneer Award and the first US Society for NeuroscienceYoung Investigator Award to a foreign scientist. He serves among others on the editorial board of J Neurosci (reviewing editor), Brain Structure & Function, NeuroSignals, Neural Development, HFSP Journal and Neuron.