2

Exploring the link between attention and eye movements (Image courtesy: Priyanka Gupta/Pixabay).

Two new studies from the Centre for Neuroscience (CNS), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) explore how closely attention and eye movements are linked, and unveil how the brain coordinates the two processes.

Attention is a unique phenomenon that allows us to focus on a specific object in our visual world, and ignore distractions. When we pay attention to an object, we tend to gaze towards it. Therefore, scientists have long suspected that attention is tightly coupled to rapid eye movements, called saccades. In fact, even before our eyes move towards an object, our attention focuses on it, allowing us to perceive it more clearly – a well-known phenomenon called pre-saccadic attention.

However, in a new study published in PLOS Biology, the researchers at CNS show that this perceptual advantage is lost when the object changes suddenly, a split second before our gaze falls upon it, making it harder for us to process what changed.

“Our study provides an interesting counterpoint to many previous studies which suggested that pre-saccadic attention is always beneficial,” explains Devarajan Sridharan, Associate Professor at CNS and corresponding author of the study.

In the PLOS Biology study, Priyanka Gupta, a PhD student in Sridharan’s lab, trained human volunteers to covertly monitor gratings (line patterns) presented on a screen, without directly looking at them, and to report when one tilted slightly. “Importantly, the participants did this task just before their eyes moved, in the pre-saccadic window. So, we were able to study the relationship between pre-saccadic attention and the detection of changes in the visual environment,” explains Gupta. A tracker was used to monitor their eye movements before, during and after their gaze fell on the object. “To our surprise, participants found it harder to detect the changes in the pre-saccadic window,” Gupta adds.

In a follow-up experiment, they made the participants monitor two gratings presented one after the other quickly, again, just before their eyes moved. What the team found was that if the orientation of the second grating suddenly changed during this time, the participants tended to mix up the orientations of the two gratings – explaining the loss of the attentional advantage.

“This is essentially a basic science study,” says Sridharan. But such insights, he adds, can be useful for how we track multiple objects in rapidly changing environments – in driving or flight simulators, for example.

In the other study published in Science Advances, carried out with collaborators at Stanford University, the researchers used an unusual experiment – this time, to decouple attention from eye movements – in monkeys. Their goal was to tease out what is happening in the brain while these processes play out.

The monkeys had been trained on a counter-intuitive task called an “anti-saccade” task. Like the human study, the monkeys covertly monitored several gratings on a computer screen without directly looking at them. But when any one grating tilted slightly, the monkeys had to look away from it instead of focusing more sharply on it. This helped the researchers delink the location of the monkey’s attention, from the location where its gaze ultimately fell.

Using a special kind of electrode called a “U-probe”, they also recorded signals from hundreds of neurons across different layers of a specific region in the monkey’s brain called the visual cortex area V4. What they found was that neurons in the more superficial layers of the cortex generated attention signals, while neurons in deeper layers produced eye movement signals.

Interestingly, these neurons also showed different activity patterns. “The superficial neurons increased their firing rates, to signal the object that needs to be attended to and prioritised for decision-making,” says Adithya Narayan Chandrasekaran, first author of the Science Advances study and a former research assistant in Sridharan’s lab at CNS. On the other hand, the deep neurons were tuning down their “noise”, possibly to allow the animal to perceive the object better.

The researchers believe that uncovering such brain signatures can eventually point to what fails in attention disorders. Sridharan says, “Discovering such mechanisms is vital for developing therapies for disorders like ADHD.”

REFERENCES:

Gupta P, Sridharan D, Presaccadic attention does not facilitate the detection of changes in the visual field, PLOS Biology (2024)

Chandrasekaran AN, Vermani A, Gupta P, Steinmetz N, Moore T, Sridharan D, Dissociable components of attention exhibit distinct neuronal signatures in primate visual cortex, Science Advances (2024)

CONTACT:

Devarajan Sridharan
Associate Professor
Centre for Neuroscience (CNS)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Email: sridhar@iisc.ac.in
Phone: 080-22933434/22933431
Website: https://cns.iisc.ac.in/sridhar/

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:

a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.
b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in.

22 February 2024

An Indian spectacled cobra (a member of the Elapidae family of snakes) on the IISc campus (Photo: Kartik Sunagar)

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute and the Evolutionary Venomics Lab (EVL) at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a synthetic human antibody that can neutralise a potent neurotoxin produced by the Elapidae family of highly toxic snakes, which includes the cobra, king cobra, krait and black mamba.

The team adapted an approach used earlier to screen for antibodies against HIV and COVID-19 in order to synthesise the new venom-neutralising antibody. “This is the first time that this particular strategy is being applied to develop antibodies for snakebite treatment,” says Senji Laxme RR, PhD student at EVL, CES and co-first author of the study published in Science Translational Medicine.

The researchers say that this development takes us one step closer to a universal antibody solution that can offer broad protection against a variety of snake venoms.

Snakebites cause thousands of deaths every year, especially in India and sub-Saharan Africa. The current strategy for developing antivenoms involves injecting snake venom into equines like horses, ponies and mules, and collecting antibodies from their blood. But there are several problems.

“These animals get exposed to various bacteria and viruses during their lifetime,” explains Kartik Sunagar, Associate Professor at CES and joint corresponding author of the study. “As a result, antivenoms also include antibodies against microorganisms, which are therapeutically redundant. Research has shown that less than 10% of a vial of antivenom actually contains antibodies that are targeted towards snake venom toxins.”

The antibody developed by the team targets a conserved region found in the core of a major toxin called the three-finger toxin (3FTx) in the elapid venom. Although different species of elapids produce different 3FTxs, a handful of regions in the protein are similar. The team zeroed in on one such conserved region – a disulphide core. They designed a large library of artificial antibodies from humans, which were displayed on yeast cell surfaces. They then tested the antibodies’ ability to bind to 3FTxs from various elapid snakes around the world. After repeated screening, they narrowed down their choices to one antibody that could bind strongly to various 3FTxs. Among the 149 variants of 3FTxs in public repositories, this antibody could bind to 99.

The researchers then tested their antibody in animal models. In one set of experiments, they pre-mixed the synthetic antibody with a toxic 3FTx produced by the Taiwanese banded krait, and injected it into mice. Mice given just the toxin died within four hours. But those given the toxin-antibody mix survived past the 24-hour observation window and looked completely healthy.

The team also tested their antibody against the whole venom of the monocled cobra from Eastern India and the black mamba from sub-Saharan Africa, and found similar results. The efficacy of the antibody was found to be nearly 15 times that of the conventional product. Crucially, when they first injected the venom and then gave the antibody after a time delay – 0 minutes, 10 minutes and 20 minutes – the antibody was still able to save mice. The conventional product, however, only worked well when injected alongside the venom. A delay of even 10 minutes significantly reduced the potency of the conventional antivenom.

In addition, the team used cryo-EM to tease out the crystal structure of the toxin-antibody complex, and found that their binding was very similar to the binding between the toxin and receptors found in muscles and nerve cells. “Our antibody seems to mimic the toxin-binding site of the receptor in our body,” says Sunagar. “Venom toxins, therefore, are binding to our antibody instead of the receptor. Since our antibody neutralises venom even with delayed administration, it may suggest that it can displace toxins that are bound to receptors.”

The researchers used human-derived cell lines to produce the antibody, bypassing the need to inject the venom first into animals like horses. “Because the antibody is fully human, we don’t expect any off-target or allergic responses,” Laxme adds.

“This solves two problems at the same time,” says Sunagar. “First, it is an entirely human antibody and, hence, side-effects, including fatal anaphylaxis, occasionally observed in patients being treated with conventional antivenom, can be prevented. Secondly, this would mean that animals need not be harmed in future to produce this life-saving antidote.”

The same approach can be used to develop antibodies against other snake venoms too, which can then be combined into a single antivenom therapy. On taking this forward to clinical trials, Sunagar says, “At this stage, a clinician cannot rely on this single antibody for treatment as this is only effective against certain elapid snakes. We are in the process of discovering additional antibodies against other snake venom toxin targets. A universal antivenom in future would consist of a couple of such synthetic antibodies that would hopefully neutralise venoms of most snakes in various parts of the world. A universal product, or at least a cocktail of antibodies that work pan-India, could then be taken to human clinical trials.”

KANNADA VERSION OF PRESS RELEASE:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10AMgopkeZO82jI_BsXuxJeEIdlNlklcX/view?usp=sharing

REFERENCE:

Khalek IS, Senji Laxme RR, Nguyen YTK, Khochare S, Patel RN, Woehl J, Smith JM, Saye-Francisco K, Kim Y, Mindrebo LM, Tran Q, Kędzior M, Boré E, Limbo O, Verma M, Stanfield RL, Menzies SK, Ainsworth S, Harrison RA, Burton DR, Sok D, Wilson IA, Casewell NR, Sunagar K, Jardine JG, Synthetic development of a broadly neutralizing antibody against snake venom long-chain α-neurotoxins, Science Translational Medicine (2024).

CONTACT:

Kartik Sunagar
Associate Professor
Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES)
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Email: ksunagar@iisc.ac.in
Phone: 080-2293-2896
Website: https://www.venomicslab.com/

Joseph Jardine
Assistant Professor
Department of Immunology and Microbiology
Scripps Research
Email: jardine@scripps.edu
Phone: (858) 784-8135
Website: https://www.scripps.edu/faculty/jardine/

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:

a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.

b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in.

15 February 2024

– Sandeep Menon

A paper-based platform developed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) could help quickly detect the presence of antibiotic-resistant, disease-causing bacteria.

One of mankind’s greatest challenges has been the rise of disease-causing bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. Their emergence has been fuelled by the misuse and overuse of antibiotics.

A handful of such bacteria – including E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus – have caused over a million deaths, and these numbers are projected to rise in the coming years, according to the World Health Organisation. Timely diagnosis can improve the efficiency of treatment.

“Generally, the doctor diagnoses the patient and gives them medicines. The patient then takes it for 2-3 days before realising that the medicine is not working and goes back to the doctor. Even diagnosing that the bacteria is antibiotic-resistant from blood or urine tests takes time. We wanted to reduce that time-to-diagnosis,” says Uday Maitra, Professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry, IISc.

In a paper published in ACS Sensors, Maitra’s lab and collaborators have addressed this challenge. They have developed a rapid diagnosis protocol that uses a luminescent paper-based platform to detect the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Schematic depicting the detection/differentiation of antibiotic-resistance bacteria (Image: Arnab Dutta)

There are different ways by which a bacterium becomes resistant to antibiotics. In one, the bacterium evolves, and can recognise and eject the medicine out of its cell. In another, the bacterium produces an enzyme called β-lactamase, which hydrolyses the β-lactam ring – a key structural component of common antibiotics like penicillin and carbapenem – rendering the medication ineffective.

The approach developed by the IISc and JNCASR team involves incorporating biphenyl-4-carboxylic acid (BCA) within a supramolecular hydrogel matrix containing terbium cholate (TbCh). This hydrogel normally emits green fluorescence when UV light is shined on it.

“In the lab, we synthesised an enzyme-substrate by tethering BCA to the cyclic [β-lactam] ring that is a part of the antibiotic. When you mix this with TbCh hydrogel, there is no green emission as the sensitiser is ‘masked,’” explains Arnab Dutta, PhD student in the Department of Organic Chemistry, IISc, and lead author of the paper. “In the presence of β-lactamase enzyme, the gel will produce green emission. β-lactamase enzyme in the bacteria is the one that cuts open the drug, destroys, and unmasks the sensitiser BCA. So, the presence of β-lactamase is signalled by green emission.” The luminescence signals the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and the intensity of the luminescence indicates the bacterial load. For non-resistant bacteria, the green intensity was found to be extremely low, making it easier to distinguish them from resistant bacteria.

The next step was to find a way to make the technology inexpensive. Currently used diagnostics instruments are costly, which drives up the price for testing.

The team collaborated with a Tamil Nadu-based company called Adiuvo Diagnostics to design a customised, portable and miniature imaging device, named Illuminate Fluorescence Reader. Infusing the hydrogel in a sheet of paper as the medium reduced the cost significantly. The instrument is fitted with different LEDs that shine UV radiation as required. Green fluorescence from the enzyme is captured by a built-in camera, and a dedicated software app measures the intensity, which can help quantify the bacterial load.

Portable fluorescence reader device (Photo: Arnab Dutta)

The team from IISc tied up with Jayanta Haldar’s research group from JNCASR to check their approach on urine samples. “We used samples from healthy volunteers and added pathogenic bacteria to mimic Urinary Tract Infections. It successfully produced the outcome within two hours,” explains Maitra.

As the next step, the researchers plan to tie up with hospitals to test this technology with samples from patients.

REFERENCE:

Dutta A, Mukherjee S, Haldar J, Maitra U, Augmenting Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance: Rapid Detection of β-Lactamase-Expressing Drug-Resistant Bacteria through Sensitized Luminescence on a Paper-Supported Hydrogel, ACS Sensors (2024).

CONTACT:

Uday Maitra
Honorary Professor
Department of Organic Chemistry
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Email: maitra@iisc.ac.in
Phone: +91-80-2293-2690
Lab website: https://orgchem.iisc.ac.in/uday-maitra/

Arnab Dutta
PhD student
Department Of Organic Chemistry
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Email: arnabdutta@iisc.ac.in

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:

a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.

b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in

12 February 2024

3^rd February 2022

Under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has installed and commissioned Param Pravega, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the country, and the largest in an Indian academic institution.

The system, which is expected to power diverse research and educational pursuits, has a total supercomputing capacity of 3.3 petaflops (1 petaflop equals a quadrillion or 10¹⁵ operations per second). It has been designed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). A majority of the components used to build this system have been manufactured and assembled within the country, along with an indigenous software stack developed by C-DAC, in line with the Make in India initiative.

[metaslider id=36683]

Photo credits: Harish Byndoor, SERC, IISc

NSM is steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and implemented by C-DAC and IISc. The Mission has supported the deployment of 10 supercomputer systems so far at IISc, IITs, IISER Pune, JNCASR, NABI-Mohali and C-DAC, with a cumulative computing power of 17 petaflops. About 31,00,000 computational jobs have successfully been carried out by around 2,600 researchers across the country to date. These systems have greatly helped faculty members and students carry out major R&D activities, including developing platforms for genomics and drug discovery, studying urban environmental issues, establishing flood warning and prediction systems, and optimising telecom networks.

The Param Pravega system at IISc is a mix of heterogeneous nodes, with Intel Xeon Cascade Lake processors for the CPU nodes and NVIDIA Tesla V100 cards on the GPU nodes. The hardware consists of an ATOS BullSequana XH2000 series system, with a comprehensive peak compute power of 3.3 petaflops. The software stack on top of the hardware is provided and supported by C-DAC. The machine hosts an array of program development tools, utilities, and libraries for developing and executing High Performance Computing (HPC) applications.

IISc already has a cutting-edge supercomputing facility established several years ago. In 2015, the Institute procured and installed SahasraT, which was at that time the fastest supercomputer in the country. Faculty members and students have been using this facility to carry out research in various impactful and socially-relevant areas. These include research on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases, such as modelling viral entry and binding, studying interactions of proteins in bacterial and viral diseases, and designing new molecules with antibacterial and antiviral properties. Researchers have also used the facility to simulate turbulent flows for green energy technologies, study climate change and associated impacts, analyse aircraft engines and hypersonic flight vehicles, and many other research activities. These efforts are expected to ramp up significantly with Param Pravega.

More details about Param Pravega including technical specifications at:

http://www.serc.iisc.ac.in/supercomputer/for-traditional-hpc-simulations-param-pravega/

14^th February 2022

Founded in 1909, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is India’s premier institute for advanced research and education, with equal emphasis on science and engineering. In line with global examples of integrating science, engineering and medicine under a single institution, IISc will be setting up a Postgraduate Medical School along with a multi-speciality hospital in its Bengaluru campus.

The academic centrepiece of this initiative will be an integrated dual degree MD-PhD programme aimed at creating a new breed of physician-scientists, who will pursue careers in clinical research to develop new treatments and healthcare solutions, driven by a bench-to-bedside philosophy. They will be trained simultaneously in the hospital as well as in the science and engineering laboratories at IISc.

The key enabler of this endeavour would be the not-for-profit, 800-bed multi-speciality hospital, catering to the clinical training and research activities of the academic programme. To construct the hospital building, designed by Ahmedabad-based architects Archi Medes (I) Consultants Pvt Ltd, IISc today inked a pathbreaking partnership with philanthropists Susmita and Subroto Bagchi, and Radha and NS Parthasarathy. The couples will collectively donate INR 425 crore (equivalent to about USD 60 million) for the project. After its founding, this is the largest single private donation received by IISc. The hospital will be named as the Bagchi-Parthasarathy Hospital.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director, Indian Institute of Science said, “We are extremely grateful to Susmita and Subroto Bagchi, and Radha and NS Parthasarathy for their magnanimous gesture. Their generous contribution will help us realise our vision of seamless coupling between clinical sciences, basic sciences, and engineering technology disciplines, all anchored within a vibrant university campus, enabling cross-disciplinary training and research opportunities for young minds. We hope that this creates a new template for institution building in India, particularly in medical research.”

Speaking on behalf of the Bagchis, Ms Susmita Bagchi said, “We are grateful for the opportunity to partner with IISc. In a country like ours, medical research and delivery cannot be left to government or the corporate sector alone. The time has come for more people like us to engage. With IISc, we find shared vision. It is an institution with depth, competence, leadership, and capacity to deliver in scale. We are greatly confident of the lasting, beneficial outcome of our donation.”

Speaking on behalf of the Parthasarathys, Ms Radha Parthasarathy said, “IISc’s larger vision to integrate science, engineering, and medicine in one campus is very new to India. This is an exciting opportunity for us to collaborate. IISc’s global reputation and network will attract outstanding talent to create breakthroughs in research and delivery of medicine that must impact the masses. The pandemic we are living through has established the need for urgency in creating universal access and equity in medicine. We are grateful to be a part of a new journey in the history of India’s most respected research institution.”

The Bagchi-Parthasarathy Hospital will be built within the existing IISc Bengaluru campus, taking full advantage of the co-location with the science and engineering faculties and labs. The ground-breaking is planned for June 2022 and the hospital will be operational by the end of 2024. The Bagchi-Parthasarathy Hospital will have advanced facilities for diagnostics, treatment and research. The clinical and surgical departments in the hospital will facilitate comprehensive treatment and healthcare delivery in several specialities including oncology, cardiology, neurology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, nephrology, urology, dermatology and plastic surgery, organ transplant, robotic surgery, ophthalmology, and so on. In addition, according to National Medical Commission norms, students admitted in specific MD/MS and DM/MCh programmes will also be trained in appropriate sections of the hospital along with their classroom and laboratory training. The hospital will also implement advanced digital technologies and solutions, such as integrated Electronic Medical Record systems and a comprehensive telemedicine suite with haptics interfaces.

The impact of the IISc Medical School and Bagchi-Parthasarathy Hospital would go beyond science and solutions. It is also expected to set the tone for sustainable health goals and policies for the nation, and serve as a model of clinical research and training that can be emulated nationwide. This ambitious endeavour will be a gamechanger in addressing the future healthcare needs of the country.

For more information, please contact Prof Phaneendra Yalavarthy (yalavarthy@iisc.ac.in).

About IISc:

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was established in 1909 by a visionary partnership between the industrialist Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the Mysore royal family, and the Government of India. Since its inception, the Institute has laid a balanced emphasis on the pursuit of basic knowledge in science and engineering and applying its research findings for industrial and social benefit. In 2018, IISc was selected as an Institution of Eminence (IoE) by the Government of India, and it consistently figures among the top Indian institutions in world university rankings. According to the QS world university ranking 2022, IISc has secured the top place in the world in the citations per faculty metric, which is a measure of research impact.

Media Contact: 

IISc Office of Communications | news@iisc.ac.in

Soumya P | Soumya.P@genesis-bcw.com

Click here for kannada version.

1^st February 2023

Brunel University London and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have launched a £100,000 (₹1,00,00,000) programme for joint research projects in areas including combustion, manufacturing, design and energy.

The Brunel–IISc International Collaboration Programme, announced today (1 February) during a visit by Brunel’s Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Andrew Jones to IISc’s campus in Bengaluru, is in support of the universities’ aim to build a long-term research and educational collaboration.

Professor Jones and other senior administrators from Brunel visited IISc and interacted with faculty members, and a signed certificate was exchanged between the two institutions to mark the programme’s launch.

The funding will support a number of short, exploratory joint ‘seed’ research projects running until the end of July 2023, with the expectation of later progression to larger, externally funded collaborative research.

Professor Jones said, “Over the past couple of years, academics from our universities have been working to develop an understanding of our joint research capabilities in combustion, manufacturing, design and energy, each of which are areas of internationally excellent research for Brunel and for IISc.

“The Brunel–IISc International Collaboration Programme takes this understanding to the next level. It provides an opportunity for our academics to work together more closely, and to start delivering impactful research that will benefit the UK and India and the relationship between our two countries.”

Professor Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc, said: “We are gratified by the collaborations we’ve had with Brunel over the past couple of years through various joint workshops, webinars and research projects/exchanges. I am sure the launch of the Brunel–IISc International Collaboration Programme will add value to the ongoing interactions and strengthen our relationship further. We anticipate the extension of this cooperation to other interdisciplinary areas, where we look forward to working together and solving problems with global impact.”

Contact:

Joe Buchanunn, Brunel University London | press-office@brunel.ac.uk

IISc Office of Communications | news@iisc.ac.in

IISc Office of International Relations | oir.admin@iisc.ac.in

8^th February 2023

Samsung Semiconductor India Research (SSIR) announced a new partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to promote research and development in the field of on-chip Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection. The research agreement was exchanged by Balajee Sowrirajan, CVP & MD at Samsung Semiconductor India Research, Bengaluru, and Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in the presence of delegates from Samsung and IISc.

The partnership seeks to build cutting-edge ESD device solutions to protect ultra-high-speed serial interfaces in advanced Integrated Circuits (ICs) and system-on-chip (SoC) products. The related research will be carried out by Prof Mayank Shrivastava’s group at the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering (DESE), IISc. Solutions arising from this research will be deployed in Samsung’s advanced process nodes.

ICs and SoCs are essential for practically any system, from small to big, that we see around us, but they are very sensitive to ESD failures, especially those developed using advanced nanoscale CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) technologies. The majority of IC chip failures and field returns are attributed to ESD failures. This is also rare expertise and industries holding the art of designing ESD protection devices and interface concepts lead the market. Thus, R&D in ESD technology for highly reliable interfaces and SoCs that operate at low power and high speed is an integral part of the semiconductor innovation effort. IISc is one of the few institutes in the world leading ESD device research.

“We are glad to partner with IISc to boost semiconductor innovation and envisage developing ESD knowledge along with expertise available in IISc. Our goal is also to increase capacity building through training programs at the postgraduate level, opening up opportunities for students to pursue industry internships, and encourage entrepreneurial ventures by young researchers,” said Balajee Sowrirajan, CVP & MD, SSIR.

Commenting on the partnership, Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc, said, “We are excited to collaborate with Samsung Semiconductor India Research in the crucial area of advanced nanoelectronics device research. The partnership reinforces our commitment to strengthen industry-academia engagements that can make a significant impact in the coming years.”

“We have been collaborating extensively with semiconductor industries worldwide on advanced nanoelectronics technologies, including solutions to ESD reliability threats to advanced SoCs. We have carried out both fundamental and applied research on ESD protection devices, with a strong emphasis on creating practical solutions for the semiconductor industry in a range of technology nodes,” said Prof Mayank Shrivastava, who heads the MSDLab, and will be leading this collaborative effort.

Samsung Semiconductor India Research, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, is the technology hub enabling innovative growth in both hardware development as well as software powered solutions in semiconductor technologies. IISc is India’s top academic institution offering world-class education to train future leaders in science and engineering. Working towards a collective goal, partnerships like these will unlock the true potential of semiconductor innovation to power the next generation of hyperintelligent devices.

About Samsung Semiconductor India Research:

Samsung Semiconductor India Research (SSIR) is a part of the global network of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. for providing component solutions, featuring industry-leading technologies in the areas of System LSI, Memory and Foundry. At SSIR, we offer our engineers a foundation to work on cutting edge technologies such as Foundation IP Design, Serial Interfaces, Multimedia IPs, Mobile SoCs, Storage Solutions, 4G/5G solutions, Neural processors, AI/ML and much more. For more details, please visit: https://semiconductor.samsung.com/

About IISc:

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was established in 1909 by a visionary partnership between the industrialist Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the Mysore royal family and the Government of India. Over the last 113 years, IISc has become India’s premier institute for advanced scientific and technological research and education. Its mandate is “to provide for advanced instruction and to conduct original investigations in all branches of knowledge as are likely to promote the material and industrial welfare of India.” In 2018, IISc was selected as an Institution of Eminence (IoE) by the Government of India, and it consistently figures among the top Indian institutions in world university rankings. For more details, please visit www.iisc.ac.in.

Contact:

IISc Office of Communications | news@iisc.ac.in

15th February 2023

In a landmark development in philanthropic support for deep science in India, the Pratiksha Trust signed an MoU on 15 February 2023 with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) – an autonomous Centre of IISc located on the Institute campus – to support fundamental and translational research on neurodegenerative diseases of the elderly population.

Under this MoU, the Pratiksha Trust has generously agreed to provide support to CBR in perpetuity, with an initial outlay to the tune of Rs 450.27 crore (approximately USD 55 million) over the next 10 years, for research, innovation and translation.

Earlier in 2014, the Pratiksha Trust, established by philanthropists Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan and Mrs Sudha Gopalakrishnan, had helped set up this unique centre in the IISc campus. The Trust has been supporting the R&D activities and has helped create world-class infrastructure in CBR since its establishment in 2014. In addition, the Trust entirely funded the construction of a state-of-the-art building for CBR. The current MoU is an extension of this support for securing the future of CBR and strengthening its long-term studies on the aging brain. In a parallel initiative, the Pratiksha Trust will be supporting several ambitious, high-risk-high-reward interdisciplinary extramural projects in aging brain research.

Since 2014, CBR has dedicated itself to the deep intellectual pursuit of reducing the burden of neurodegenerative disorders (such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Vascular Dementia) among a key population – the elderly and their families. A strong foundation was laid under the visionary leadership of founder Director Prof Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath, during her tenure until the end of May 2022. CBR is now a lively hub of talented and dedicated molecular and cellular biologists, neuroscientists, clinician-researchers, computational geneticists, data scientists, and bright PhD students who are engaged in interdisciplinary translational research. The Centre currently has 10 Principal Investigators supported by more than 20 Research Scientists, Post-Doctoral Fellows, and Medical Officers, and 22 PhD students.

The Centre has initiated and completed four years of two unique longitudinal studies to track the aging brain over a 15 to 20-year period in individuals older than 45 years of age – one for a rural cohort (in Srinivasapura Taluk of Kolar District, Karnataka) with 10,000 volunteers, and the other for an urban cohort (in and around Bengaluru) with 1,000 volunteers. In the rural cohort, more than 5,400 volunteers have already been recruited and more than 6,600 multi-modal assessments have been completed (baseline as well as yearly follow-ups). The corresponding figures for the urban cohort (a project supported by the Tata Trusts) are more than 1,100 recruitments and more than 2,300 assessments. These cohort studies are providing a wealth of data, and preliminary analyses of the data collected so far are revealing important insights with implications for understanding the risk factors and protective factors for neurodegeneration. CBR is also leading a large-scale, nation-wide initiative involving 20 institutions called “Genome-India” (supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India), which aims to discover India-specific genetic basis for diseases through whole genome sequencing of 10,000 samples collected from across the length and breadth of India. CBR has caught the attention of the global community of researchers through more than 30 publications in high-impact journals including Nature Reviews Neurology, Journal of Neuroscience, and Alzheimer’s & Dementia. The Centre has started attracting notable funding from external agencies.

The substantial extension of support by the Pratiksha Trust through the current MoU will help scale up the research and innovation activities at the Centre significantly. It will help identify new early biomarkers and molecular targets for novel drugs. The funding will help initiate and investigate the efficacy of evidence-based interventions (lifestyle-based as well as therapeutic). The funding will also enable the Centre to proactively explore and achieve complete bench-to-bedside translation of the outcomes from the interdisciplinary research.

“The human brain is one of the world’s biggest mysteries, which is yet to be fully understood. By funding this Centre, with the help of IISc, we are working towards creating and sustaining a globally recognised, state-of-the-art research and innovation hub that will be at the cutting edge of research on the human brain,” said Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan. “We are committed to supporting this Centre in its mission to reduce the pain, agony, and burden of an important part of our society: the elderly population. We wish the Centre all success and hope that it becomes the world’s leading centre for aging brain research by 2030.”

Prof G Rangarajan, Director, IISc, said, “India’s elderly population is expected to grow rapidly to a staggering 32 crore by 2050, leading to a corresponding increase in the burden of dementia and other aging-related neurodegenerative diseases. CBR is uniquely positioned to take on the challenge of tackling this impending healthcare and socioeconomic crisis. I thank Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan and Mrs Sudha Gopalakrishnan for their continued commitment to such crucial research and the unprecedented level of support that they have given.”

Prof Y Narahari (Computer Science and Automation, IISc), the current Director of CBR, said, “CBR is privileged to have had the sustained support of Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan and Mrs Sudha Gopalakrishnan. Their generous contributions will help us pursue transformational research in mission mode, which will help reduce the burden of neurodegenerative diseases as well as improve the quality of life for the elderly. We are grateful for the exemplary vision and munificence of the donors. With determination and fortitude, CBR will make a single-minded effort to tackle the scientifically-challenging problems ahead and dedicate itself to the service of the nation.”

About the Pratiksha Trust 

The Pratiksha Trust is a charitable trust founded by Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan (Co-Founder, Infosys Technologies and Chairperson, Axilor Ventures) and Mrs Sudha Gopalakrishnan. The Trust has provided philanthropic support to many high-impact scientific initiatives for social good including the Centre for Brain Research. The Trust has supported frontline research and innovation in several top-ranking institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The Pratiksha Trust has also recently launched a unique, extra-mural funding initiative called EMSTAR (Extra Mural Support for Transformational Aging Brain Research) to fund high-risk, high-reward inter-disciplinary projects in aging brain research and innovation.

About the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) 

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) was established in 1909 by a visionary partnership between the industrialist Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the Mysore royal family and the Government of India. Over the last 113 years, IISc has become India’s premier institute for advanced scientific and technological research and education. Its mandate is “to provide for advanced instruction and to conduct original investigations in all branches of knowledge as are likely to promote the material and industrial welfare of India.” In 2018, IISc was selected as an Institution of Eminence (IoE) by the Government of India, and it consistently figures among the top Indian institutions in world university rankings.

About the Centre for Brain Research, IISc Campus 

The Centre for Brain Research (CBR) is an autonomous centre of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), set up to foster interdisciplinary research in basic and clinical neuroscience, to understand brain aging and aging-related brain disorders through advanced genetic, biochemical, neuroimaging, and neurocognitive investigations. The Centre aims to understand how cognitive functions can be preserved during aging and how the burden of neurodegenerative disorders can be reduced through early diagnosis, prevention, postponement, and innovative interventions. It brings together neuroscientists, neuro-physicians (psychiatrists and neurologists), engineers, and computational scientists to conduct mission-oriented translational research and innovation. The foundation stone for CBR was laid by India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on February 18, 2015. The state-of-the-art building housing the CBR activities was inaugurated by Shri Narendra Modi on June 20, 2022. 

 Contact 

Centre for Brain Research | office.cbr@iisc.ac.in  
IISc Office of Communications | news@iisc.ac.in 

17th February 2023

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) will throw open its gates to visitors on the occasion of Open Day to be held on Saturday, 4 March 2023, after a gap of two years.   

Open Day is typically organised close to the birth anniversary of the Founder, JN Tata, as well as National Science Day. This year, on 4 March 2023, from 9 am to 5 pm, people from all walks of life are invited to explore the campus and catch a glimpse of the exciting research conducted here.   

On this day, students and researchers at the Institute will showcase their work as well as new and exciting advances in science and technology for visiting enthusiasts. The Institute will be abuzz with popular lectures, panel discussions, quizzes and competitions. Each Department and Centre will put forth experimental demonstrations, interactive exhibits and colourful posters.   

“Through Open Day, we hope to share the excitement of science and engineering with every visitor, and inspire them to develop the scientific temper necessary to become a responsible citizen of the modern world,” said Prof G Rangarajan, Director, IISc.   

There will be e-rickshaws (Transvahan) available for easy commute inside the campus and helpdesks will be located at several points. Visitors are requested to help keep the campus clean by making full use of the garbage bins placed everywhere, and by bringing their own water bottles (drinking water refill stations will be available across campus).  

Entry to Open Day is free. Although registration is not mandatory, educational and other institutions as well as individual members of the public are strongly encouraged to register for the event at the following links:  

Institutional registration:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWgGcFw3Ve71wLmk4N6SFOEBKPE4yF_NPTHD4INHrXD-TG9g/viewform

Individual registration:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScEcJv27vczidKG5NUaX1G7LrWQM0kcrBXMnGhKQaRGrUVAFA/viewform

For more details about Open Day, please visit https://openday.iisc.ac.in

Contact: 

Public Relations Office
Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
pro@iisc.ac.in | 080-2293 2770