Bhubaneswar: Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh will inaugurate a two-day national conclave at Bhubaneswar’s Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology Thursday, where a significant national health research initiative is scheduled to be unveiled.
The national conclave on longitudinal cohort studies will see the presentation of Phenome India – CSIR Health Cohort Knowledgebase (PI-CHeCK), a national health research initiative.
CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology Director Souvik Maiti said Phenome India aims to establish a national biobank to facilitate the prevention, early detection, and development of India-specific health parameters through the use of longitudinal cohort studies, where individuals are followed over time to track disease progression and risk patterns.
IIMT Director Ramanuj Narain said the effort moves healthcare from treatment to prediction and prevention.
Based on one’s test profile, the aim is to estimate the likelihood of developing diabetes or liver fibrosis even before symptoms appear, he said.
PI-CHeCK’s project lead Shantanu Sengupta said longitudinal cohorts are essential to understanding why India faces a disproportionately high burden of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
He explained that PI-CHeCK is the country’s first large-scale initiative to explore these conditions using population-based longitudinal data.
The project has enrolled over 10,000 CSIR employees, pensioners, and spouses across 37 laboratories in 16 states, creating a nationally representative cohort, he said.
Preliminary analyses revealed that one in three participants has fatty liver, and 25-30 per cent of fibrosis cases occur without fatty liver, likely linked to altered gut microbiomes, he added.