Takao K. Hensch, Ph.D., is joint professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School at Children’s Hospital Boston,
and professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science.
After undergraduate studies with Dr. J Allan Hobson at Harvard, he was a student of
Dr. Masao Ito at the University Tokyo (MPH) and a Fulbright fellow with Dr. Wolf Singer
at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research, before receiving a Ph.D. in neuroscience
working with Dr. Michael Stryker at 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 served as group director (and now special advisor) before
returning to the United States in 2006. Dr. Hensch has received several honors, including
the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award in both Japan (2001 Tsukahara
Prize) and the United States (2005), as well as an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2007).
He currently directs the NIMH Silvio O. Conte Center for Basic Mental Health Research
at Harvard. He serves on the editorial board of various journals, including
Journal of Neuroscience,
Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders,
Neural Development,
Neuroscience Research,
Frontiers in Neural Circuits, and
Neuron.
Dr. Hensch’s research focuses on critical periods in brain development. By applying
cellular and molecular biology techniques to neural systems, his lab identified pivotal
inhibitory circuits that orchestrate structural and functional rewiring of connections
in response to early sensory experience. His work affects not only the basic understanding
of brain development, but also therapeutic approaches to devastating cognitive disorders
later in life.
Parizad M. Bilimoria, Ph.D., is the communications and outreach director for the NIMH Silvio O. Conte Center at
Harvard University. She graduated in 2010 from the Program in Neuroscience at Harvard
Medical School. Her dissertation focused on signaling pathways that orchestrate the
morphological development of neurons in the cerebellum. She became excited about science
writing through an internship at the Office of Communications and External Relations
at Harvard Medical School and worked as a science writer for the Office of Public
Affairs at Children’s Hospital Boston. She has written about the first oral therapy
for multiple sclerosis while serving as a medical writer for ETHOS Health Communications.
She holds a B.S./M.S. in neuroscience and a minor in creative writing from Brandeis
University.
