IIT Madras releases advanced human neuroscience data produced from India

Chennai, Dec 10 (PTI) The Indian Institute of Technology Madras on Tuesday said the institute has become the first research organisation in the world to release the most detailed 3D High-Resolution images of the fetal brain.
    For the first time in the world, 5,132 brain sections have been captured digitally using the Brain Mapping Technology developed by Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre in the institute, it said.
    This monumental work in creating advanced human neuroscience data from India will advance the field of Neuroscience and potentially lead to the development of treatment for health conditions affecting the brain.
    "This pioneering work from the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre of IIT Madras pushes the frontiers of Brain Mapping Technology and places India in the global league of brain mapping science as this is first-of-its-kind work anywhere in the world," a release from IIT M said.
    This Data set termed ‘DHARANI’ is available on open source for free for all researchers at: https://brainportal.humanbrain.in/publicview/index.html
    The project was done at less than 1/10th of the costs in Western Countries. The research was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team at IIT Madras with researchers from India, Australia, the US, Romania, and South Africa, and medical collaboration with Chennai-based Mediscan Systems and Saveetha Medical College Hospital.
    This research, led by Prof Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, Head, Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, IIT Madras, is critical for India as the country accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world’s childbirths at 25 million each year.
    "This makes it vital for the country to understand the brain development from the fetus to a child, to adolescence, and to a young adult, and developmental disorders like learning disabilities and autism," the release stated.
    The work was supported by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Kris Gopalakrishnan, IIT Madras alumnus and co-founder, Infosys, Premji Invest, Fortis Healthcare, and Agilus Diagnostics.
    NVIDIA, AI company, partnered with the centre to help process these petabytes of brain data.
    The findings of this Research has been accepted for publication as a special issue by Journal of Comparative Neurology, a century-old peer-reviewed systems neuroscience journal, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)