Chennai, Dec 10 (UNI) The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) on Tuesday released world’s first 3D high resolution images of the human fetal brain, even as Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, said India is at the forefront in this technology.
The images were released by IIT-Madras Director Prof V.Kamakoti a at press conference held at the campus today.
In his message congratulating the IIT-Madras for this pioneering research initiative, Prof Ajay Kumar Sood said India is at the forefront in generating human fetal brain maps for the first time through this cutting-edge technology developed by IITM’s Brain Centre.
Congratulating the researchers on this cutting-edge work, he said “We are pleased that the support from our office has seeded this pioneering effort advancing scientific knowledge in this frontier area of brain sciences, and has generated a global resource for researchers worldwide”.
Prof Kamakoti said IIT-Madras became the First Research Organization in the world to release the most detailed 3D High-Resolution images of the human fetal 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.
He said this Data Set, termed ‘DHARANI’, is freely available for all researchers world-wide.
For the first time globally, 5,132 brain sections have been captured digitally using cutting-edge Brain Mapping Technology developed by the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre,Prof Kamakoti said.
This work will advance the field of Neuroscience and potentially lead to the development of treatment for health conditions affecting the brain.
This monumental work is the first time such advanced human neuroscience data has been produced from India.
The project was done at less than 1/10th of the costs in Western countries.
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 research was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team at IIT-Madras with researchers from India, Australia, U.S., Romania and South Africa, and medical collaborations with Chennai-based Mediscan Systems and Saveetha Medical College Hospital.
This research, led by Prof. Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, Head, Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, is critical for India as the country accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world’s childbirths at 25 million each year.
