Event Details:
Join the speaker for coffee, cookies, and conversation before the talk, starting at 11:45am.
Translating Critical Periods
Brain functions are enduringly shaped by early life experience. The Hensch lab explores the biological basis for these critical periods in brain development -- identifying pivotal roles for specific inhibitory circuit ‘triggers’ and molecular ‘brakes’ which can be lifted to enable adult plasticity. Such insights shed translational light on the etiology, novel biomarkers and potential reversibility of derailed neurodevelopmental trajectories in cognitive disorders, early adversity, recovery from brain injury in adulthood, and life-long learning more broadly.
Takao Hensch, PhD
Professor, Molecular & Cellular Biology Professor, Neurology (Children’s Hospital) Director, IRCN (UTIAS) Center for Brain Science Harvard University
Takao K. Hensch is joint Professor of Molecular Cellular Biology at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science and Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a graduate of Harvard, the University of Tokyo, UCSF and a former Fulbright Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute (Frankfurt). After his PhD, Hensch helped to launch the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (Japan) as Lab Head for Neuronal Circuit Development and Group Director of Critical Period Mechanisms Research, before returning to Harvard in 2006. There he directed the NIMH Silvio Conte Center for Mental Health Research and is a prominent leader and advisor to impactful global research networks, such as the International Research Center for Neurointelligence (Japan), CIFAR Child Brain Development network (Canada), NCCR Synapsy (Switzerland), OECD-CERI (France) and National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (USA). He has served on numerous editorial boards, including Neuron, J Neurosci (reviewing editor) and Frontiers in Neural Circuits (chief editor). Professor Hensch has received several honors, including Young Investigator Awards from the Society for Neuroscience both in the US (2005) and Japan (2001 Tsukahara Prize), the Sackler Prize for Developmental Psychobiology (2016), NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2007), and the Japanese Imperial Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon (2024).
Hosted by Guosong Hong (Hong Lab)
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About the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Seminar Series
The Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute seminar series brings together the Stanford neuroscience community to discuss cutting-edge, cross-disciplinary brain research, from biochemistry to behavior and beyond.
Topics include new discoveries in fundamental neurobiology; advances in human and translational neuroscience; insights from computational and theoretical neuroscience; and the development of novel research technologies and neuro-engineering breakthroughs.
Unless otherwise noted, seminars are held Thursdays at 12:00 noon PT.