IIT-Madras releases world's largest digital dataset of human fetal brain

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has released the world’s largest publicly accessible digital dataset of the human fetal brain. The detailed 3D high-resolution images of the fetal brain were captured using cutting-edge brain mapping technology developed by the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre of the Institute. The open-source dataset is named ‘DHARANI,’ and it is freely available for all researchers worldwide.

“For the first time globally, 5,132 brain sections have been captured digitally. This work will advance the field of neuroscience and potentially lead to the development of treatment for health conditions affecting the brain”, IIT-M said in a statement. The research is critical for India as the country accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world’s childbirths 25 million each year. This makes it vital to understand the brain development from the fetus to a child, to adolescence, and to a young adult, and developmental disorders like learning disabilities and autism.

“This study will pave the way for new scientific discoveries, allowing quantification of neurodevelopmental disorders and advances in fetal medicine. This is now the largest publicly accessible digital dataset of the human fetal brain, advancing current knowledge by 20X. This is the first time such advanced human neuroscience data has been produced from India and made freely available as a global resource”, said Prof. Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, Head, Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, IIT Madras.

The project was done at less than 1/10th of the costs in western countries. The research was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team at IIT Madras, with researchers from India, Australia, the U.S., Romania, and South Africa, and medical collaborations with Chennai-based Mediscan Systems and Saveetha Medical College Hospital.

The findings of the research have been accepted for publication as a Special Issue by the Journal of Comparative Neurology, a century-old peer-reviewed systems neuroscience journal.

This work was supported by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Kris Gopalakrishnan, IIT Madras Distinguished Alumnus and Co-Founder, Infosys, Premji Invest, Fortis Healthcare and Agilus Diagnostics. NVIDIA, globally a leading AI company, partnered with the Centre to help process these petabytes of brain data.