Context
Recently, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT)-National Brain Research Centre (DBT-NBRC) has recently developed project SWADESH, a unique brain initiative focusing on certified neuroimaging, neurochemical, neuropsychological data and analytics that are made accessible to researchers for managing brain disorders.
What is the SWADESH Project?
- SWADESH is the first large-scale multimodal neuroimaging database.
- It is designed specifically for the Indian population with big-data architecture and analytics for various disease categories under one platform.
- Objectives:
- To strengthen Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research
- To help the scientific community come up with promising treatments
- Technical support: It is supported by JAVA-based workflow environments and Python. Backed by a dedicated storage system, it provides quality control, data analysis reports, and data backups.
- Python and Java are both computer programming languages.
Proposed Health subjects
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SWADESH proposes a big-data architecture that manages and analyzes six modules, namely neurodegenerative [AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Parkinson’s disease (PD)], neuropsychiatric (schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), neurodevelopmental (autism and epilepsy), COVID-19-related disorders, other disorders, and health subjects.
Significance
- It will be useful in conducting multimodal brain studies to understand Alzheimer’s disease and several neurological disorders.
- Its development will facilitate the integration of multi-site data and collaborative research worldwide.
About DBT
- The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) functions under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
- It promotes and improves biotechnology development in India through its development and implementation in agriculture, healthcare, animal sciences, the environment and industry.
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