IIT-M inks research collaboration pact with THSTI

The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has inked a research collaboration agreement with Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI). This collaboration is aimed at addressing the problems in maternal and child healthcare sector in India using new technologies.

In a bid to create models to help doctors reduce maternal and child mortality rates in the country, IIT-M will be analyzing the vast and detailed data collected by the THSTI on pregnancy outcomes by using data science and other technologies.

Karthik Raman, a faculty of Biotechnology Department of IIT-M, said, "There are many issues such as gestational diabetes, pre-term babies, the impact of environmental pollution on the maternal and baby healthcare, nutrition issues and immune response to vaccines. By using the data of THSTI, we can analyse the reasons and develop India-specific models to deal with these problems."

Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director, THSTI, stated, "Our ability to understand, predict and manage human health is changing rapidly with the application of new technologies. The analysis of the massive data sets generated by these studies is a critical need for which there has, so far, been limited capacity in India." 

Himanshu Sinha, Associate Professor, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Madras, added, "We are very excited about this collaboration between THSTI and IITM as it will give us access to one of the most comprehensive and detailed Indian datasets on pregnancy outcomes being conducted by THSTI. We will analyse this dataset to develop India-specific models."