On Thursday, August 28, MCB will host the University of Tokyo International Research Center for Neurointelligence (IRCN) Symposium @Harvard, bringing together leading neuroscientists from Japan and Harvard for a full day of talks, posters, and discussion. The event, which is free and open to the public, will explore the neurobiology of brain development, its disorders, and connections to artificial intelligence, with sessions spanning early neurodevelopment, autism, higher cognitive functions, and the social brain.
The symposium is part of a long-running international collaboration between Boston Children’s Hospital and the University of Tokyo IRCN, led by Takao Hensch, MCB Professor and Neurology Professor at Boston Children’s Hospital. Funded by the Japanese government, IRCN is one of the country’s flagship neuroscience initiatives—designed to bridge basic neurobiology, clinical neuroscience, and AI research to answer one of the biggest questions in science: How does human intelligence arise?
“This 10-year project was created to tackle major questions at the interface of different disciplines,” says Hensch, now in its eighth year after the first IRCN Symposium in 2017. “By combining work on brain development with advances in clinical neuroscience and artificial intelligence, we can make progress that wouldn’t be possible in any one field alone.”
The August symposium will feature prominent IRCN investigators from Japan alongside Harvard faculty Catherine Dulac, Paola Arlotta, Mustafa Sahin, and Naoshige Uchida. Talks will highlight research on topics ranging from chromatin and lipid regulation of neuronal maturation to reinforcement learning circuits, social behavior, and the neural underpinnings of psychiatric conditions such as autism and schizophrenia.
Hensch notes that the Harvard venue will help broaden participation: “It’s the start of the school year, and we hope to see many undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs from across the Cambridge and Boston neuroscience community. This is also a chance to showcase the incredible science happening at the University of Tokyo to a wider audience here at Harvard.” Hensch also encourages undergraduates to learn more about potential summer studies in Japan to conduct research in some of Japan’s top labs.
The IRCN event will also include two poster sessions—one during lunch and another during the closing reception. All attendees are welcome to present posters; interested presenters should register in advance.
When: Thursday, August 28, 2025 • 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Where: Northwest Building, B101 • 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA
While the symposium is available to all, registration is encouraged, especially for those wishing to present posters.
