Current Affairs 2022: Highlights of Project SWADESH

By Ankita Rawat

Project SWADESH is the world’s first Multimodel Brain Imaging Data and Analytics developed by DBT- NBRC. Let us read further for details.

About DBT & NBRC

DBT is known as the Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science & Technology to improve and promote Biotechnology development in India through their development and implementation in healthcare, environment, agriculture, animal science and industry. NBRC is known as the National Brain Research Centre, which is the only institute in India working toward Neuroscience Education and Research. All the students and scientists come from different academic backgrounds, including computational, physical, biological, engineering, biological, mathematical, and medical sciences. NBRC uses multidisciplinary methods to resolve secrets of the brain.

Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister for Ministry of Science & Technology inaugurated Project SWADESH on November 19^th, 2021. SWADESH has proposed big-data architecture that analyses and manages six modules including neuropsychiatric (schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), neurodegenerative [AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Parkinson’s disease (PD), COVID-19-related disorder, neurodevelopmental (autism and epilepsy), other health and disorder subjects. Project SWADESH aims to strengthen research around Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and help the science community to come up with promising treatments.

Python and JAVA workflow environment supports the project SWADESH. Supported by the dedicated storage system to provide quality control, data backups, and data analysis reports. The development of SWADESH will facilitate the worldwide amalgamation of multi-site data and collaborative research. Currently, the SWADESH consists of the data of 500 AD, MCI, and 70 PD patients. It includes data of healthy 800 young individuals and 600 old individuals in the control group.

SWADESH developed the following clinical research tools

Through SWADESH, many clinical research tools have been developed by DBT- NBRC. The GAURI system uses learning schemes and adaptive pattern recognition for predictive differential or single diagnosis, designed with neuropsychological batteries and MRI modalities. NINS-STAT is a powerful cutting-edge automated statistical test selection and execution software package with the highest applicability in clinical research. KALPANA is a combinatory package for preprocessing, visualization, and quantitation of MRS data. PRATEEK research on multimodal neuroimaging data reduces the requirement for proficiency in operating different neuroimaging tools for analysing and processing multimodal data. STIM- Stimulus Timing Integrated Module has a multipurpose paradigm design system, real-time participant response-collection system, presentation system for functional MRI- associated purposes, mapping brain activity non-intrusively in normal healthy condition, and clinical assessment of several brain problems.

BHARAT was launched by Dr Mandal’s team in DBT- NBRC, it's a large-data analytic model for initial diagnostic biomarkers of AD. The design consists of a Hadoop-based big-data framework incorporating MRS, MRI, and neuropsychological test scores. Dr Mandal’s team is working to expand the project to include ample multimodal neuroimaging datasets for diseased and healthy cases.

Dr Rajesh Gokhale appreciated the NBRC initiative, as a database like SWADESH will help in conducting multimodal brain-related research to understand Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders.

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About the Author

  Ankita Rawat is doing graduation in BA(JMC) from JIMS Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.