Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Saturday launched the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre in order to power an ambitious global project to map the human brain at the cellular and connectivity levels, with a focus on high-resolution brain imaging. The centre aims to become a globally recognised research centre, generating human brain data, scientific output and technology tools.
It was inaugurated in the presence of Prof. K. VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, as well as noted alumni Kris Gopalakrishnan, Sudha Gopalakrishnan, and Prof. Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, who will be heading the centre. Separately, Prof VijayRaghavan also inaugurated the AquaMAP Centre for Water Management and Policy during his visit.
"The combination of IIT Madras, which has the expertise in science and data analysis, with medicine is going to be revolutionary. Going forward, we have an extraordinary problem in Neuroscience, i.e. on the functioning of the human brain. We are at an earlier stage in our understanding of the human brain functioning. The IIT Madras Brain Centre will help in solving complex issues that will benefit the world," VijayRaghavan said, addressing the inaugural ceremony.
"The dynamic leadership of IIT Madras has shown the ability to herd different kinds of complex talent together. The IIT Madras Research Park is an example and today every institution wants to copy the model," he added. The first ongoing project of the Centre, titled 'Computational and Experimental Platform for High-Resolution Terapixel Imaging of ex-vivo Human Brains', for high-throughput light microscopic imaging of whole human brains, is supported by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
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Through this project, the Centre has developed a device to process human brains into high-resolution digital images, and use it to image post-mortem human brains of different types and ages. "The Brain Research Centre is a great case study which proves that technology can contribute to medicine and solve societal problems. The Centre will make deep in-roads in collecting data for brain research", IIT Madras Director Prof V Kamakoti said, congratulating the researchers involved in the project.
Speaking on the occasion, Kris Gopalakrishnan, one among the alumni who is also heading the centre, said "Entrepreneurship and development in science and technology are important for the nation’s growth. While there have been great strides in supporting entrepreneurship, there is a need for more support to foster world-class research in India. Scientists and engineers play an important role in feeding the knowledge economy of the country. The country has the right talent, resource and opportunity in leading some areas globally."
