RIKEN Brain Science Institute

RIKEN Brain Science Institute (RIKEN-BSI) was established in 1997 as part of RIKEN,[1] focusing on neuroscience research located in Wakō city, Saitama Prefecture in the greater Tokyo area, Japan.

[2] Masao Ito, formerly a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Tokyo University, joined RIKEN as the second director of the (former) International Frontier System and initiated the neuroscience research in RIKEN in 1989 after his retirement.

It was first major move towards biological science in RIKEN, which had been dominated by physics and chemistry.

Subsequently, it was led by the second director, Shun'ichi Amari and interim director Keiji Tanaka, and then currently by 1987 Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa (2009-).

Aiming at an interdisciplinary understanding of the brain, its research target ranges from molecular and cell biology to cognitive and computational neuroscience.