The mission of the ADBS is to nucleate a program of research to understand the development and mechanistic basis of common, serious psychiatric disorders in the Indian population. It is proposed to do this through a long-term, integrated and collaborative effort involving specialist clinicians from NIMHANS as well as scientists from NCBS/inStem with expertise in understanding the cellular and molecular analysis of biological processes. This application to the DBT, GoI is for a five-year proof of principle activity to nucleate this long-term effort. It is proposed under the umbrella of a future proposal to the Ministry of Health, GoI for a long-term support for research into psychiatric illness in the Indian population. 

In this application, we propose to set up a prospective, longitudinal cohort of patients with adult onset psychiatric disorders including at-risk subjects with genetic predisposition as well as asymptomatic controls. These cohorts will be followed from childhood/young adults over a period of twenty years. The members of the cohort will be subjected to a uniform set of clinical analysis and a biorepository will be set up using cellular material from these individuals. It is expected that deep interrogation of brain networks (via brain imaging and clinical electrophysiology) as well as sub-cellular networks using molecular and cellular analysis would lead to better mechanistic understanding of these disorders. These findings should lead to better diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for patients with psychiatric disorders as well as fundamental new insights into the function of the human brain.