Annual Report 2017-18 Contents Presentations • Patents • Publications • Publications, Patents &Presentations Prof
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
National Brain Research Centre Annual Report 2017-18 Mandate 07 From the Director’s Desk 09 Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience 11 • Dr. Sourav Banerjee • Prof. Anirban Basu • Prof. Ranjit Kumar Giri • Prof. Nihar Ranjan Jana • Dr. Anindya Ghosh Roy • Prof. Ellora Sen • Prof. Pankaj Seth • Prof. Subrata Sinha Contents • Dr. Yogita K. Adlakha Systems & Cognitive Neuroscience 47 • Dr. Yoganarasimha Doreswamy • Prof. Soumya Iyengar • Prof. Neeraj Jain • Prof. Shiv Kumar Sharma Computational Neuroscience & Neuroimaging 61 • Dr. Arpan Banerjee • Prof. Pravat Kumar Mandal • Dr. Dipanjan Roy • Prof. Nandini Chatterjee Singh Publications, Patents & Presentations 81 • Publications • Patents • Presentations Externally Funded Research Projects 91 Distinctions, Honors & Awards 97 Academic Programs 101 • Ph.D. in Neuroscience • Integrated Ph.D. in Neuroscience • Summer Training & Short Term Programs NBRC Facilities 105 • Distributed Information Centre • Animal Facility Contents • Library • DBT’s Electronic Library Consortium (DeLCON) • National Neuroimaging Facility • Translational Research & Clinical Neuroscience Unit • MEG Facility & Centre of Excellence Lectures, Meetings & Workshops 121 General & Academic Administration 129 Institutional Governance Structure & People at NBRC 133 Annual Financial Statements 147 Mandate & Objectives MANDATE • Pursue basic research to understand brain function in health and disease. • Generate trained human resources with the capability to carry out inter-disciplinary research in neuroscience. • Promote neuroscience in India through networking among institutions across the country OBJECTIVES • To undertake, aid, promote, guide and coordinate research of high caliber in basic and clinical neuroscience related to diseases and disorders of the nervous system. • To develop NBRC as the national apex centre for neuroscience research and promote neuroscience research at different centres in the country and to provide consulting services to other institutions, agencies and industries. • To promote, encourage and augment effective linkages, alliances and affiliations between the Centre and National and International Scientific and Research Institutions, bodies, agencies/laboratories and other organizations working in the field of brain and neurosciences research. • To establish one or more satellite centers to serve different regions of the country for efficient achievement of the objectives of the Center. • To collect, assimilate, publish and disseminate data and information on relevant aspects of neuroscience to the scientific community. • To establish, operate and maintain state-of-the-art facilities as well as databases for carrying research and development activities and make such facilities and databases available to scientists and researchers from all over the country and abroad. • To provide for instructions and training in such other branches of learning as the Centre may deem fit. • To provide facilities for the advancement of research and development to facilitate learning and dissemination of knowledge. • To undertake extramural studies, extension programmes and field outreach activities to contribute to the development of society. • To promote, develop, collaborate or otherwise assist in providing services of research, training, consulting or guidance related to neurosciences activities comprising biological, psychological, sociological and clinical aspects; and • To do all such other acts and things as may be necessary or desirable to further the objectives of the Centre. NBRC Annual Report 2017-18 7 Director’s Desk Prof. Neeraj Jain NBRC was established with a mandate to understand brain addressed using machine learning approach. This new method function in health and disease, and to train manpower for has been used for making prediction of subject-specific functional advanced neuroscience research. It is with great pleasure I connectivity with high accuracy. Further, understanding of latent present this annual report for the years 2017-18, which reiterates variables and parameters using these methods helped characterize that NBRC scientists and staff have been steadfastly working to age-specific developmental reorganization in the brain structure fulfil this mandate while continuously setting higher goals for and function. themselves. NBRC scientists have made several discoveries during last year using multidisciplinary approaches and various model Brain connectivity analysis has provided crucial insights into systems, buttressed by intra-institutional and inter-institutional developmental differences between autistic and typically developing collaborations. children. Work at NBRC using Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) data set, which is divided into two cohorts - children Research that directly benefits society is a major component of (9–12 years) and adolescents (13–16 years), has demonstrated work at NBRC. Japanese Encephalitis Viral (JEV) infection, which how age, disease, and their interactions affect intrinsic connectivity is endemic in parts of India has high mortality. Basic research at of brains of children and adolescents in autism spectrum disorder NBRC on mice, which was followed by a clinical trial has shown (ASD). The results showed that ASD exhibits increased functional that Minocycline, a drug of tetracycline family approved for other integration at the expense of decreased functional segregation. diseases, provides benefit in management of JEV. Following deaths This study lends support to a model of global atypical connections of infants in a hospital at Gorakhpur, ICMR and Department of Health and further identifies functional networks and areas that are Research announced last year that minocycline may be used for independently affected by age, disease, and their interactions. an observational study in infants with acute encephalitis. Further research on JEV has shown that knockdown of HSP60 leads to Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) decreased IL-1ß production during JEV infection, which eventually analysis of the brain network involved in sensorimotor processing leads to decreased inflammation and increased survival of JEV- shows that these are complex networks that are organized on infected mice. This study helps understand complex signaling the basis of functional and connectional framework of individual mechanisms involved in neuro-inflammation, and also suggests body parts. Interestingly, the network organization of non-human HSP60 as a potential therapeutic target for the amelioration of primates and humans shows great similarities permitting extension various neuro-inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. of observations, such those after spinal cord injuries, to the human conditions. Glutathione (GSH) is a major antioxidant in the brain. Research at NBRC has discovered that GSH can exist in extended and closed Basic studies remain an important component of the overall conformations using MR spectroscopy. Results show that closed research program at NBRC. We believe that effective applied form of GSH is reduced significantly in the hippocampal regions and translational research requires a solid foundation of basic when a healthy person develops mild cognitive impairment (MCI). research, including in animal and cell culture model systems. Thus, GSH can be used as an early diagnostic biomarker for Work on learning and memory shows that activation of a signaling Alzheimer’s disease. Work also continues on building an Indian pathway leads to long-lasting activation of a kinase that critically Brain Template for MRI studies, for which a new MATLAB based regulates synaptic plasticity and memory. Further studies show software package called ‘BRAMHA’ has been developed. that new RNA synthesis and new protein synthesis is required for long-lasting activation of the kinase, which may play important role A fundamental problem of cognitive neuroscience is understanding in synaptic plasticity and memory. A novel non-proteolytic function processes that sculpt functional correlations in the brain despite of protein ubiquitination has been identified in hippocampal a relatively fixed anatomical connectivity matrix. This has been synapse maturation. Further, work has also shown that functional NBRC Annual Report 2017-18 9 Director’s Desk impairment of E3 ligase - Rnf2, a critical component of the three- Work on glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive kind of brain tumor enzyme cascade responsible for protein degradation, is linked to shows a previously unknown non-metabolic role of glycolytic Angelman Syndrome. enzyme Hexokinase 2 (HK2) as a transcriptional co-activator of redox regulatory gene, and a novel role of metabolic gene Isocitrate Song birds are a valuable model to understand brain circuits dehydrogenase (IDH1) in the regulation of genes associated with involved in vocalization. Mechanisms involved in modulation of immune-surveillance. vocalization through the endogenous opioid system have been identified using the song bird - Zebra finch. Blocking opioid During the year Prof Subrata Sinha superannuated on 28th receptors in the avian basal ganglia region, Area X, led to changes December, 2017, after seven and a half years at the helm of in spectral and temporal features of individual syllables in songs NBRC. His leadership of NBRC is recognized. I also would like to that male birds use to court females. In addition, opioid receptor acknowledge DBT generously supporting NBRC programmes, activation was seen to be necessary for motivation