PROJECT SWADESH

• Recently, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT)-National Brain Research Centre (DBT-NBRC) has developed Project SWADESH, for managing Neurological disorders.
• NBRC is the only institute in India dedicated to Neuroscience Research and Education.

Important points:

• It is the first large-scale multimodal neuroimaging database designed specifically for the Indian population with big-data architecture and analytics for various disease categories under one platform.
• It 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 healthy subjects.
• 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.

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.

Neurological Disorders

• Neurological disorders are diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system.
• In other words, the brain, spinal cord, cranial nerves, peripheral nerves, nerve roots, autonomic nervous system, neuromuscular junction, and muscles.
• Non-Communicable Neurological Disorders: Stroke, Headache disorders, Epilepsy, Cerebral palsy, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, Brain and central nervous system cancer, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple sclerosis, Motor neuron diseases, and other neurological disorders.
• Communicable Neurological Disorders: Encephalitis, Meningitis Tetanus.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT