Chennai, Oct 14 (INB) The Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre at IIT Madras has launched an initiative to map more than 100 human brains into three-dimensional atlases at cellular resolution, covering stages from foetal development to old age, the institute said on Wednesday. The mission was launched during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, the institute said in a post on X. The initiative aims to build a large collection of whole-human-brain maps to advance scientific understanding of brain structure, development and neurological disorders, according to the institute. The centre, headed by Prof Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, is using advanced brain imaging and computing infrastructure to develop the atlases and make them publicly accessible to researchers and medical professionals worldwide. As part of the initiative, the centre has already released three-dimensional atlases of a second-trimester foetus, named DHARANI; the brainstem, named ANCHOR; and stroke-related brain mapping, named C-STROKE. The project is expected to support neuroscience research and improve understanding of brain-related diseases by providing detailed cellular-level maps for scientific investigation. The initiative also seeks to strengthen India’s contribution to global neuroscience research and support future discoveries in brain health, the institute said.
