The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has set aside Rs.141 crore as a 5-year grant to fund a project titled ‘Accelerating the Application of Stem Cell Technology in Human Disease’. It has now brought together National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), National Centre for Biological Sciences- Institute of Stem Cell (NCBS--inStem), Bengaluru and CMC-Vellore.
The research pact was inked in January 2016 and will span till 2020. It will provide a nucleus for studies spanning the next decade. These studies will follow up the individuals, and families, over several years, and evaluate how clinical care, and the environment, influence outcomes.
DBT came out with this project following its collaboration with Japan’s RIKEN, which focuses on biology, life sciences, material sciences and computational sciences.
The research between NIMHANS, NCBS- inStem, will explore the genetic bases of five brain disorders: schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, dementia, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder (ADD) from a cellular perspective and find potential interventions to help manage these conditions.
While NIMHANS gets Rs.40 crore, NCBS-inStem will get Rs.35.25 crore with a separate allocation from Pratiksha Trust of Rs.6 crore. Representing NIMHANS is Prof. Sanjeev Jain, Prof Raghu Padinjat from NCBS, Prof Mahendra Rao from inStem and Prof Alok Srivastava from CMC- Vellore.
The research between inStem and CMC-Vellore focuses on gene therapy for hereditary blood disorders like haemophilia, thalassemia and sickle cell disease (SCD).
“We will study the MRI scans and provide our inputs to come out with valuable information on correlations between genetic variations and brain structure. Brain disorders are impacting a large population. Our objective is to comprehend the causes of disease manifestation and find ways to improve the condition,” said Prof B N Gangadhar, director, NIMHANS.
NCBS-inStem are engaged in research of genetic and neurological disease-disorders and have a considerable insight on Parkinson’s disease and mood related disorders. “The key outcome from this research for NIMHANS is to identify the genes responsible for these conditions. We will rope in the patients and also their family for this study to ascertain the genetic contributions to these disorders,” Prof. Sanjeev Jain, Molecular Genetics Laboratory, department of psychiatry, NIMHANS, told Pharmabiz.
“We will study the clinical expressions and co-relate it with the biological investigations and environmental influences. The EEG and MRI scans along with the immunological blood samples will have NCBS-inStem bring in their genomic and cell therapy expertise to provide molecular insights about the disease. The data generated can indicate how genes affect at the cell level. We will also be able to look at re-purposing drugs which are existing medicines developed using complex molecules and help expand its use for brain disorders,” said Prof. Jain.
“India lacks well established cohorts of patients and their families, with mental health issues. NIMHANS has been providing clinical services for over a century and generations of individuals have accessed our facility. We are looking for early detection and treatment for any of these 5 brain disorders among the relatives of patients. Therefore, patient and their families contributions are immense for this project,” said Prof. Jain.
In an email to Pharmabiz, Prof. Sajyajit Mayor, director NCBS, said that the science component is being anchored at NCBS with Dr Raghu Padingat as the main driver. The total number of researchers will depend on the needs of the science that emanates from this project.
NIMHANS will involve many students and around 20 faculty to generate the cohort of 20-year patient evaluations, said Prof. Jain.