IIT Madras released the largest 3D high-resolution images of the human fetal brain, digitally capturing 5,132 brain sections at cellular resolution using advanced brain mapping technology.
Developed at the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre at IIT-M, the dataset is named DHARANI and is available as an open-source resource. Researchers used Nvidia processors for the high-level processing capabilities required to generate the detailed 3D images, IIT-Madras said in a release.
This research is crucial for India, which sees nearly one-fifth of global childbirths—around 2.5 crore annually—highlighting the importance of understanding brain developmental disorders, cognitive growth, and neurological conditions.
The project was done at less than a tenth of the costs in western countries, and supported by the office of the principal scientific advisor to the government, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys, Premji Invest, Fortis Healthcare, and Agilus Diagnostics.
The research findings have been accepted for publication as a special issue of the Journal of Comparative Neurology, a century-old peer-reviewed systems neuroscience journal.
The research was led by Prof Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, head of Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, IIT Madras, with researchers from India, Australia, the US, Romania, and South Africa.
“This study will pave way for new scientific discoveries, allowing quantification of neurodevelopmental disorders and advances in fetal medicine. This is now the largest publicly accessible digital dataset of the human fetal brain, advancing current knowledge by 20X,” Sivaprakasam was quoted as saying in the release.
Gopalakrishnan added that this accomplishment reconfirms that Indian research and development (R&D) can create world-class science and technology. “Ambitious research programmes are multi-disciplinary and multi-year, and I hope this inspires more such programmes in India and will get private and public support.”
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