India’s largest pregnancy cohort study of 12,000 women under the GARBH-INi (Interdisciplinary Group for Advanced Research on Birth Outcomes) initiative is aimed at developing indigenous, AI-driven solutions to address preterm births, one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality as well morbidity in adulthood.
What is GARBH-INi Initiative?
- It is as a flagship research programme of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) program launched in 2015 for conducting one of South Asia’s largest pregnancy cohort studies involving 12,000 women.
- Lead Agency: Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI)
- THST is an autonomous institute under the DBT, Ministry of Science and Technology.
- Established in 2009
- It is part of the Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council (BRIC)and is located within the NCR Biotech Science Cluster in Faridabad
- Implementation: It is part of the Atal Jai Anusandhan Biotech Mission – UNaTIand involves collaborations with institutions like IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, and various tertiary care hospitals.
Key Features of the GARBH-INi Initiative:
- Goal/Objectives:
- To understand causes of preterm birth and develop solutions, ultimately improving maternal and child health outcomes in India.
- To identify biomarkers and create risk prediction models for early detection of preterm birth and fetal growth restriction.
- Study Scope:
- The project tracks 12,000 pregnant women from early pregnancy (<20 weeks’ gestation) through delivery and six months postpartum, collecting longitudinal, multidimensional data.
- Technological Focus: It uses AI, multi-omics, and imaging data to develop India-specific models for predicting preterm births (PTB) and fetal growth restriction (FGR), aiming to improve neonatal mortality and morbidity rates.
Major Achievements & Tools
- Garbhini-GA2: It is the first India-specific AI model developed to accurately determine gestational age (fetal age) in the second and third trimesters. It reduces error by nearly three times compared to models based on Western populations.
- Large-Scale Cohort: Established one of South Asia’s largest pregnancy cohorts, enrolling over 12,000 womenearly in their pregnancy for longitudinal follow-up.
- Data Repositories:
- GARBH-INi-DRISHTI: A comprehensive data-sharing platform and dashboard that provides researchers access to clinical data, images, and biospecimens.
- National Bio-Repository: Houses over 1.6 million well-classified biosamples and 500,000+ ultrasound images to support advanced biomedical research.
- Multi-Omics Research: Integrating genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and microbiome data to find biological markers for early risk detection.