In a world first, 5,132 brain regions were digitally imaged at cell resolution using state-of-the-art brain mapping technology developed by the team at the Sudhagopalakrishnan Brain Center at IIT.
This research is very important for India as 25 million babies are born every year in this country, about one-fifth of the world.
(Image credit: Siddhagopalakrishnan Brain Centre, IIT Madras)
This makes it important for the country to understand brain development and developmental disorders such as learning disabilities and autism from the fetus through the child, through adolescence, and into a young adult.
“This study will pave the way for new scientific discoveries, quantifying neurodevelopmental disorders and advances in fetal medicine. It is now the largest publicly accessible digital dataset of human fetal brains, Advancing existing knowledge by 20X, this is the first time such cutting-edge human neuroscience data from India has been produced and made freely available as a global resource,” Prof. Mohana Shankar Sivaprakasam. , said Head, Siddhagopalakrishnan Brain Centre, IIT Madras.
Key applications for creating such high-resolution brain images are advances in current fetal imaging technologies, for early diagnosis and treatment of developmental disorders.
The work, called ‘DHARANI’, is available open source, and will advance the field of neuroscience and potentially lead to the development of treatments for health conditions affecting the brain.
“I am delighted that India is at the forefront of mapping the human fetal brain for the first time through this innovative technology developed by IITM’s Brain Centre. We are pleased that our office’s collaboration has led to this important effort to advance scientific knowledge in this frontier area of neuroscience, and has created a global resource for researchers around the world,” said Professor Ajay Kumar. Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor said.
These findings have been accepted for publication as a special issue by the Journal of Comparative Neurology.