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Systems Biology and Medicine

Integrative biology, Systems medicine, Clinical data science, genomics, transcriptomics, genome data science, microbiome analysis

IRIS Webinar

IBSE collaborates with institutions and clinicians to identify unique studies that address India-specific healthcare problems and develop novel analytical techniques that cannot be developed using population data from anywhere else in the world. A primary driving purpose is that it is the prerogative and responsibility of Indian scientists to create India-specific gestational age dating models, defining an Indian reference genome and addressing similar India-specific personalised healthcare issues. Undoubtedly, such models and data are less of a pressing need outside of the country; yet, once developed, these India-specific datasets and models can generate global interest by spurring the development of novel analytical methods for analysing these data both independently and in comparison/conjunction with western population data, be it genetic, genomic or disease phenotypic data. We closely collaborate with RBCDSAI and it’s Research Initiative Deployable AI and with NCTB and it’s Research Initiative Cancer Genetics and Molecular Therapeutics.

Systems Biology and Medicine

Himanshu Sinha

Principal Investigator

People

Himanshu Sinha

Area of Interest

Himanshu Sinha

Principal Investigator

Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Bioscience

Website
sinha@iitm.ac.in
Quantitative & Population Genetics, Genetic and regulatory networks in yeast, Systems Biology, Clinical data analysis
Manikandan Narayanan

Area of Interest

Manikandan Narayanan

Co-Principal Investigator

Computer Science and Engineering

Website
nmanik@cse.iitm.ac.in
Bioinformatics, Computational Network Biology, Multi-tissue genomics,  Single-cell analysis"
Karthik Raman

Area of Interest

Karthik Raman

Co-Principal Investigator

Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences

Website
kraman@iitm..ac.in
Metabolic Network Analysis, Computational Modelling, Simulation of biological systems/networks, Systems and synthetic biology, Metabolic Engineering
Nirav Bhatt

Area of Interest

Nirav Bhatt

Co-Principal Investigator

Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences

Website
niravbhatt@iitm.ac.in
AI for Analysis and Control of Biological and Disease Networks from Multi-sensor and Multi-scale Data, Learning and Control of Complex Man-made Networks , Integrated (Bio-)process Manufacturing Bioprocess Control and Process Analytical Technology
Ravindran Balaraman

Area of Interest

Ravindran Balaraman

Co-Principal Investigator

Computer Science and Engineering

Website
ravi@cse.iitm.ac.in
Machine learning, Reinforcement Learning, Data science , Algorithms

Project

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The IBSE CoE is a central point of scientific collaboration and key resource-sharing amongst the several individual component projects undertaken by PIs who are part of the Centre. Project-specific objectives of IBSE areas highlighted below.​

Phase I 

GARBH-Ini

Preterm birth prediction modelling

  • The first aim of this project is to develop India-specific formulae to determine the foetus’s gestational age in the first and second/third trimesters.
  • The project’s second aim is to develop dynamic prediction models that can predict, at different periods of gestation, the preterm birth and other adverse birth outcome risk – to stratify women for timely clinical interventions.
  • This project is in collaboration with Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad. It is funded by DBT, BIRAC and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

GenomeIndia

Whole-genome sequence of 10K Indians

  • Sequencing 10,000 healthy individuals across populations within India will help determine the genetic variations in the population. 
  • This catalogue of genetic variants in the Indian population will facilitate future large-scale India-specific genome-wide association studies.
  • This data will enable the development of novel ML, graph and graph indexing algorithms to build a reference Indian genome sequence/graph that reveals genetic heterogeneity of Indian populations. 
  • This multi-institutional project is funded by DBT.

MulTiGenomics

Computational multi-tissue genomics methods to elucidate tissue-tissue communication

  • The human multi-tissue gene expression and matched genotype data from the NIH GTEx Consortium, along with expression data on multiple brain regions of Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease individuals – will be used to infer an integrated gene network model of within-tissue function and tissue-tissue communication. This will help in predicting crucial genes and gene modules that mediate rewiring of tissue-tissue communication in a disease. 
  • The project is funded by DBT/Wellcome India Alliance.

Expected deliverables of the research

Phase I 

For the GARBH-Ini project, India-specific gestational age models and a model for preterm risk stratification in Indian women are the primary deliverables. One of the critical deliverables will be the deployment of these models in clinics dating and preterm risk classification models and hospitals across india

For GenomeIndia, some of the deliverables include a catalogue of unique Indian variants, sub-population specific variants, and India reference genome. The project will increase the genomic representation of Indians in global databases and kick start personalised medicine in india.

For the MulTiGenomics project, the primary outcome will be novel computational methods that analyse multi-tissue genomic data to identify mediators (genes, cell types, hormones) of tissue-tissue communication; and their broad applicability to study healthy and neurodegenerative disease states.

Research outcomes of the above funded projects will be the main deliverables for this CoE. Notably, in Phase I, IBSE will set up the Administrative Core and Bioinformatics Core and initiate the formation of the Technical Advisory Board.

Current status

Centre-specific

Formed a Technical Advisory Board of eminent research scientists from around the world in the fields of strategic importance.

Ashok VenkitaramanLink

Partha P MajumderLink

Srinivasan ParthasarathyLink

Project-specific

Collaborations

International Collaborations

  • Ashok Venkitaraman link
  • Lars M Blank link
  • Victor de Lorenzo link
  • Julio Saez-Rodriguez link
  • Kasthuri Venkateswaran link
  • Rahuman Sheriff link
  • Gianni Liti link

Industrial collaborations

Primarily, IBSE is an academic centre with almost all of its research projects having a strong and significant societal impact in improving human health in India. Given the primary focus of IBSE is on healthcare, IBSE is looking to collaborate with hospitals and the healthcare industry to help them develop data analysis pipelines and solutions. Our faculty consults for the industry and advises startups like qBiome, Orbuculum, Vantage Research. In the coming years, we foresee more industry interactions in the public health sector. We plan to facilitate and support industry interaction by connecting with both Pharma and the healthcare industry. With funding opportunities from BIRAC, the Gates Foundation, in-house support systems such as Nirmaan and Harcharansingh Initiative on AI, IBSE will initiate India-relevant data analytics projects and startups. In conjunction with RBCDSAI, IBSE is very well placed to drive ahead exciting projects in this space.

Societal impact

IMPACT

Societal impact

The primary focus of the research projects being carried at IBSE and being proposed in Phase II of the CoE is to fulfil the National Health Mission projects of the Government of India including Atal Jai Anusandhan Biotech Mission- UNaTI The data and the analysis from these research projects will impact various facets of human health in India.

IN THE NEWS

BOOK

Sustenance statement

The importance to human health and the social relevance of the various projects make it highly likely that this will evolve to be one of the signature areas for IIT Madras over the coming years. Already, IBSE has established itself as one of the go-to centres in India for high-level analysis of omic and clinical datasets. They form a cohesive group capable of taking up many challenging large-scale data analysis and modelling projects. The highly interdisciplinary IBSE faculty have strengthened their internal collaborations through various projects. We will generate alumni and CSR funding for IBSE projects, and we will be shortly submitting such proposals to generate further funding for IBSE. We are confident that funding for future projects and maintaining the proposed core infrastructure will be feasible with increased visibility and impactful research.