Ian's Noesis Wiki

Properties1
tagsinstitute, neuroscience, primate, brain-computer-interface

8 min read

CEBSIT (Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology)

CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT), Shanghai — China’s flagship neuroscience institute and the workplace of the wiki’s curator (as of 2026). Formerly the Institute of Neuroscience (ION), founded 27 November 1999; one of the first four CAS “Centers for Excellence” (2014); expanded in 2015 to add brain-inspired intelligence technology (first institution bridging brain science and brain-inspired AI research); independent legal entity since April 2019. Long-time (scientific) director: Mu-ming Poo (蒲慕明). Official sites: english.cebsit.cas.cn.

Institutional metrics (curator-collected, 2026-09)

  • 55 research groups (recruitment notice, Jan 2024); 49 PIs + 3 youth investigators (2023 official-site data); 43 senior and 39 associate-level researchers; 3–4 CAS academicians (last two unverified).
  • 533 staff + 109 postdocs + 372 graduate students (~1,014 total) — verified 2026-09-10 against a Jan 2024 CEBSIT recruitment notice (sh-italent.com); a separate source’s “600+” staff-and-students figure is internally inconsistent.
  • Annual budget ≈ ¥750.09M RMB (2025).
  • Hosts the State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience (approved for preparation 2007, established 2009). Rated “excellent” (优秀类) in MOST’s 2016-round evaluation of 75 biology/medicine state key labs (announced 26 Jun 2017) — verified; the “#1 among China’s neuroscience-related national key labs (2012 and 2017 evaluations)” framing is curator-supplied and not independently confirmed.

Research standing

Rankings (user-collected, attributed to Nature Index 2025)

  • CAS (with ION/CEBSIT in Shanghai as its flagship neuroscience units) ranked #3 institution globally for neuroscience in the Nature Index 2025 annual tables — Count 78, Share 17.04 — behind Harvard (#1, Share 41.66) and NIH (#2, Share 17.38), ahead of UCL (#4), Fudan (#5) and UCSF (#6); the highest-ranked non-US institution in the field and China’s top. Verified 2026-09-10 against the Nature Index article “The world’s top 10 institutions for neuroscience research” (14 May 2026; window Sep 2024–Aug 2025). CAS is also the #1 overall institution in the 2025 Research Leaders tables.
  • Nature Index maintains a dedicated CEBSIT profile (see References).

Publication record

  • Early breakthrough: within its first 4 years, ION’s 13 research groups broke the record for Chinese life-science papers in top international journals; in 2005 alone it published 2 Cell, 1 Nature and 1 Science papers, including mainland China’s first Cell paper in 25 years (Jiefang Daily profile of Poo, 2 Sep 2026).
  • The institute itself states that it published the first paper of China’s neuroscience field and that its papers account for more than half of all Chinese neuroscience papers currently published in top-tier international journals (CEBSIT recruitment materials, 2021 — institutional claim, verified as stated, not independently audited).
  • Selected 2024 outputs (curator-summarized): Science (whole-brain spatial organization of hippocampal single-neuron projectomes; CEBSIT news, Feb 2024); Nature Neuroscience (real-time analysis of large-scale neuronal imaging); Nature Communications (monkey SCNT reprogramming mechanism); Neuron (cell-type-specific optogenetic fMRI, basal forebrain); Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
  • 2025–2026 landmarks (verified): Cell (Jul 2025) — single-neuron projectomes of macaque prefrontal cortex, 2,231 neurons and 32 projectome-based subtypes (PubMed 40645170); part of a Jul 2025 Cell special issue of ~10 mesoscale brain-atlas papers from China; Science (16 Apr 2026) — “An opposing molecular gradient axis underlies primate cortical organization” (“bipolar map”; PubMed 41990166); Nature Communications (May 2026) — 3D spatial representation in the primate brain (CEBSIT news, 19 May 2026); Cell (2026) — world-first complete three-modal analysis of the same neuron (Wang Kai / Xu Shengjin labs; CEBSIT news, 18 Jun 2026).

Primate neuroscience focus

  • World-first macaque cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer (2017–2018), providing core technology for brain-disease model monkeys and tool monkeys.
  • Single-neuron projectome mapping at scale: first whole-brain projectome study of macaque prefrontal cortex at single-neuron resolution (Cell 2025); 300+ scientists from CEBSIT and partners contribute to mesoscale brain mapping.
  • ICPBM — International Consortium for Primate Brain Mapping: launched 20–21 Sep 2025 at the 2025 International Forum on Mesoscopic Brain Mapping (18th Pujiang Innovation Forum, Shanghai), announced by Poo Mu-ming; founding members: 118 scientists from 25 countries/regions; white paper and a 10-year plan with three milestones released (primatebrain.org). ⚠️ An earlier version of this page described ICPBM as a “25-year, ~2-dozen-country effort” — press coverage (Jiefang Daily, 2 Sep 2026) describes a 10-year plan; check the ICPBM charter for the authoritative horizon.
  • ICPBR — International Center for Primate Brain Research (icpbr.ac.cn; 500 Qiangye Road, Shanghai): a dedicated center within CEBSIT co-directed by Poo Mu-ming and Nikos K. Logothetis (formerly Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen), with core teams recruited from Germany.
  • Dedicated primate groups/platforms: Ling Li (primate cognitive circuits), Zhen Liu (reproductive engineering in primates), Primate Social Cognition Lab, NHP Cognitive Behaviour Analysis Platform, Liu Cirong (primate brain imaging/mapping), Sun Yidi (primate genomics/mapping), Shen Zhiming (mesoscopic brain atlas), Yang Tianming (decision-making in NHPs).
  • Non-human primate facilities in Jiuting (Songjiang, Shanghai) and Suzhou; high-resolution whole-brain imaging infrastructure across Suzhou, Hainan, and Shenzhen.

Brain-computer interface

  • Led China’s first prospective clinical trial of an invasive BCI (CEBSIT teams of Zhao Zhengtuo & Li Xue with Huashan Hospital, Fudan University — surgeons Wu Jinsong/Lu Junfeng; device: StairMed WRS01). First surgery 25 Mar 2025 (Xinhua/CAS; the page’s earlier “launched 5 Mar 2025” date is not independently confirmed). The first participant — a 37-year-old quadruple amputee from a high-voltage accident — achieved cursor control, chess and car-racing games; participants #2 and #3 were implanted in Jun and Oct 2025 (n = 3 cohort); participant #2 (high paraplegia) drives a wheelchair outdoors and commands a robotic dog; by Aug 2026 the CEBSIT/Huashan team had completed 28 flexible wireless BCI implantation surgeries (Jiefang Daily, 2 Sep 2026). StairMed’s 256-channel WRS02 system reported in 2026 (Global Times; MassDevice: $72.8M financing). Positioned China as the second country after the US to advance invasive BCI clinically (CAS News, Jun 2025; Dec 2025 follow-up; arXiv:2607.07185). See brain-computer-interface and brain-interface for category context.

National role

  • China Brain Project: Poo spearheaded 脑科学与类脑研究 (“Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence Research”, Innovation 2030 major project), China’s national brain initiative.
  • Hub of the Shanghai Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Technology Research Center and the G60 Brain Science and Innovation Base (Songjiang), which hosts ICPBR and partner units.
  • Core facilities: optical imaging, electron microscopy, molecular/cell technology, gene editing, neural stem cells, brain imaging (3T/9.4T MRI, MEG), animal center, micro-nano fabrication, brain-science data/computing.
  • National recognition: repeatedly named among “China’s Top 10 Scientific Advances”; macaque cloning listed among the “historic achievements since the 18th National Congress”; designated a “landmark major achievement” of CAS across the 12th/13th Five-Year Plans.

Caveats

As of 2026-09-10 most headline claims have been independently web-verified (recorded inline above): founding date/history (official site, Baidu Baike), Nature Index 2025 rankings (exact figures), the “>half of China’s top-journal neuroscience papers” institutional statement (CEBSIT recruitment materials, 2021), the Cell/Science landmark papers (PubMed), macaque cloning (Cell 2018), ICPBM launch (primatebrain.org), ICPBR co-directorship (icpbr.ac.cn), the BCI-trial timeline (CAS/Xinhua, Jiefang Daily), and the April 2019 independent-legal-entity date with personnel figures (sh-italent recruitment notice, Jan 2024). Still curator-supplied / unverified: annual budget (≈¥750.09M, 2025), academician count (3–4), senior/associate researcher numbers, the “China’s Top 10 Scientific Advances” recognitions, and the exact “ranked #1” State Key Lab placement (excellent-class rating verified). Discrepancies flagged: ICPBM described as a 10-year plan (Jiefang Daily, Sep 2026) vs “25-year effort” here; BCI first surgery 25 Mar 2025 (Xinhua) vs earlier “5 Mar 2025” launch date on this page. confidence: medium.

References

Graph View

Backlinks