2 days ago
Health data at CFTRI, Mysuru, to be analysed using AI and machine learning
A five-day long extensive health checkup camp was organised at CSIR-CFTRI in Mysuru recently. The CSIR Health Cohort project is a multi-institutional, five-year long project covering across all CSIR laboratories. This project is being undertaken at the national level to develop clinically useful personalised risk predictions for various communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Over 10,000 employees of CSIR, including retirees and their spouses, have been identified as subjects for this project.
The project, CSIR Phenome India Health Cohort Project - Phase II Camp, started during 2022, and the first phase of the project was completed during February 2023 for CSIR-CFTRI. Those who have enrolled for this project have extensively undergone phlebotomy, including for CBC panel, Liver Function Test, and Kidney Function Test. The blood sample collected is being analysed for detailed biochemical markers as well as omics investigations, including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, cytokines profile, and telomere length measurement.
In addition, imaging and scanning was done through spirometry, ECG, body composition, liver scan, and oscillometry, etc. All the samples obtained from across the CSIR labs will be stored at CSIR Biobank at CSIR-IGIB, Delhi, under strict anonymity protocol, a press release, here, said.
In this study, the large-scale cohort being implemented along all 40 CSIR labs spread across the country will serve as a national resource for identifying genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle risk factors. The data obtained will be analysed through AI and machine learning approaches for developing precision health care.
The project is being coordinated by Shantanu Sengupta, Chief Scientist, CSIR-IGIB, Delhi. Like previous year, nearly 300 participants have undergone health check-up in the camp this year. The camp in Mysuru was inaugurated by Bhaskar Narayan, Director (Additional Charge), CSIR-CFTRI, in the presence of Prakash M. Halami and Muthukumar S.P., who are coordinating the project at the institutional level, the release added.
The second phase of the testing camp had a specific health and nutritional questionnaire regarding food frequency, conducted by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation.
Due to consumption of highly processed food, there is a substantial increase in lifestyle disorders. Also, healthy ageing is one of the important agendas being noticed among senior citizens. Hence, more retirees participated in this phase. In this context, higher enrollment of subjects is being expected in phase III of the project, which will take place during mid-2026, said Mr. Halami.
