Amrita University collaborates with EU to study brain disease

The development comes close to the heels of Amrita launching the Amrita Mind Brain Centre (AMBC) on its Amritapuri campus in Kerala to strengthen fundamental research related to the brain, cognition, computations and neuro-engineering.

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has become the first varsity in the country to partner with European Union's Human Brain Project (HBP) to better understand brain function and develop solutions to cure brain diseases. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed between Amrita Vidyapeetham and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, for working together on the project. The Vidyapeetham and EPFL would work in collaboration with the University of Pavia, Italy, and Aix-Marseille University, France.

The development comes close to the heels of Amrita launching the Amrita Mind Brain Centre (AMBC) on its Amritapuri campus in Kerala to strengthen fundamental research related to the brain, cognition, computations and neuro-engineering. Dr. Shyam Diwakar, as its director, will develop new technologies to study brain function, dysfunction, and therapy.

"Functional signals directed by MRI techniques are widely used in specialty hospitals to monitor brain activity non-invasively. However, connecting these signals to the underlying activity of brain cells or neurons has been a challenge," Diwakar said. "In a project called BOLDsim, which is a part of Human Brain Projects voucher grant, we will develop a new computational tool for modeling functional signals in the brain using cellular data-driven models," he said.

The HBP project would run until 2023 although its first-level stage is expected to be completed by October 2021.

"I am very happy that Amrita has become the first university in India to partner with EUs Human Brain Project and will model a simulator for better understanding of brain conditions and brain function," the release quoting Vice-Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Dr Venkat Rangan said. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham is a research-intensive institution that has over the last 15 years established more than 180 collaborations with the top-500 world-ranked universities, the release said.

Read More:

• Amrita University Coimbatore Courses & Fees 2021
• Amrita University Coimbatore Admission 2020