depresson-problem is going to be solved in the days to come.


Tiny molecule will end trial and error era for depression treatment

BY | June 9, 2014
Tiny molecule will help find right medication for depression. The trial and error era will end in treating people suffering from depression
Very small molecules miR-1202 are hard to find in the brains of those people who are suffering from depression. These molecules actually help the brains fight depression and lack of them actually causes depression.

This is going to help many people get right treatment. This will also help physicians in finding people who may be cured when treated by antidepressant medication.

depression_2Dr Gustavo Turecki, one of the lead authors of the report say, “Using samples from the Douglas Bell-Canada Brain Bank, we examined brain tissues from individuals who were depressed and compared them with brain tissues from psychiatrically healthy individuals”. Dr Gustavo Turecki is a psychiatrist at the Douglas and professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry at McGill. The study has been jointly conducted by scientists at McGill University and the Douglas Institute

Researchers are of the opinion that depression caused disability in many cases and notwithstanding the fact that there are ready treatments for the problem, finding right medication is the most important problem.

They say that physicians make numerous mistakes while treating such patients and many a times aggravate the problem. But the problem is going to be solved in the days to come. Turecki says, “We identified this molecule, a microRNA known as miR-1202, only found in humans and primates and discovered that it regulates an important receptor of the neurotransmitter glutamate”.

While detailing his finding further Turecki further says, “In our clinical trials with living depressed individuals treated with citalopram, a commonly prescribed antidepressant, we found lower levels in depressed individuals compared to the non-depressed individuals before treatment…Clearly, microRNA miR-1202 increased as the treatment worked and individuals no longer felt depressed”. This is a huge development and will help millions of people suffering from depression.
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Infosys team discovers solution to study bones

,TNN | Jun 9, 2014, 02.50 AM IST
READ MORE Infosys Technologies|Sudip Singh|Osteoporosis|Infosys engineering services
BANGALORE: It's a meeting of dissimilar subjects: principles of mechanical engineering are being used to understanding bone density and fracture risk.

A team of engineers from Infosys Technologies, Bangalore, has developed a solution using computer-assisted design and finite element analysis (FEA) tools to study mechanics of vertebrae, taking into account various factors such as shape, density distribution of cortical and cancellous bone.

The team comprising Dattatraya Parle, principal consultant, and Anirudha Ambulgekar, engineering analyst, from Infosys Engineering Services unit, in collaboration with medical experts, used MSC multi-disciplinary simulation solutions to enable doctors to study bones in a detailed and non-invasive manner. This, the team said, will help diagnose osteoporosis and accurately quantify fracture risk.

Last week, for the second time in a row, the team walked away as the winner of the prestigious 2014 Simulating Reality contest for their 'Osteoporosis solution'. In 2013, an Infosys team had won the Simulating Reality contest for its 3D model of the human heart, that helps medical professionals and scientists improve their understanding of the complexities of human heart disorders.

Currently, doctors estimate bone fracture risk using various methods such as physical examination of CT scans or X-rays and other physiological parameters such as gender, age and weight. "All these diagnostic methods are qualitative and may not take into account geometric and mechanical factors of vertebrae such as shape, cortical bone thickness, density distribution of cortical/cancellous bone, material properties of bone tissue etc. Our invention presents a solution for osteoporosis vertebra to quantitatively assess the fracture risk of vertebrae. Osteoporosis is a bone disease that is characterized by a decrease in bone density that reduces bone strength and increases risk of bone fracture. This solution brings together some of the best practices adopted in mechanical engineering industry to bio-medical industry," said Dr Ravi Kumar GVV, industry principal and head, Advanced Engineering Group, Infosys.

Though computational techniques have already been used in biomedical engineering, the current challenge involves the application of advanced biomedical simulations to clinical medicine and to the study of biological systems at different levels such as cell, tissue and organ. By 2015, around 15% of Indians may be osteoporotic due to increasing longevity of the Indian population. "This is what motivated the Infosys team to develop the current innovative solution for osteoporosis," he said.

The Infosys team worked on the solution for about three months, in collaboration with a radiologist. Initially, state-of-the-art practices and methodologies in osteoporosis were studied. CT scan images of osteoporotic patient vertebrae were used to generate a patient-specific 3D model containing the exact shape and size of their porosity. The 3D model was calibrated to actual dimensions prior to analysis for fracture risk.

A typical case of a person sitting erect where 1000 N compressive force in the lumbar spine is used for stress analysis. The computed compressive vertebra stresses are used to assess patient-specific fracture risk factor.

BEST TREATMENT POSSIBLE

With this new solution from Infosys, doctors can precisely determine the pathophysiology of the pain due to osteoporosis in individual cases. This will help us select the appropriate treatment option for each patient.

Dr Ketan Gaikwad | radiologist, Mumbai

Our engineering capabilities for the life sciences industry focus not only on innovation but also on improving existing medical procedures and processes. This breakthrough in reimagining osteoporosis diagnosis and treatment provides medical practitioners with a new, comprehensive and non-invasive way to examine individual bones and skeletal structure, and determine the best course of action.

Sudip Singh | vice-president and global head, engineering services, Infosys

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Narendra Patni, pioneer of India's IT revolution, is dead

He passed away in US before undergoing surgery
Aditi Divekar  |  Mumbai 
Last Updated at 00:48 IST
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Read more on:    Patni | Us | It | Narendra Kumar | Patni Computer Systems
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Narendra Kumar Patni, pioneer of India’s information technology (IT) services revolution, passed away in the US on Tuesday. He was 71.

Patni is survived by wife Poonam and children Anirudh and Ambika.

He was to undergo a surgery in Boston. However, before the surgery, he suffered a cardiac arrest, said a person closely associated with Patni. “The funeral will be held here in Boston at 10 am on Thursday,” he added.

Born into a Marwari Jain family, Patni was an alumnus of Roorkee Engineering College (now Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also had a master’s degree in business administration from MIT Sloan School of Management.

In 1972, Patni, along with his Poonam, was one of the first to have started the offshoring trend. Initially, the couple started operations from their apartment in the US; subsequently, they set up back-office operations in Pune, with 20 people.

Along with his brothers Ashok and Gajendra, Patni founded Patni Computer Systems (PCS) in 1978. Then, Narayana Murthy, Infosys executive chairman; S Gopalakrishnan, Infosys executive vice-chairman; and Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, were part of his team.

Eventually, Murthy, Nilekani and five other colleagues of Patni went on to set up Infosys, the second-largest Indian IT services provider today.

“I worked under Naren when I was head of software at PCS. He was a brilliant leader who brought out the best in all of us. His death is a big loss to all of us, his admirers,” said Narayana Murthy.

Vijay Khare, who worked at PCS for 30 years and reported directly to Patni, said, “He (Narendra) was a person with great ideas and an open mind… he was extremely humble… Starting from the security guard to his top officials, he knew people by first names; he was so humble. His demise is a personal loss to me.”

As the Indian IT sector went through a change during the 1999-2000 dotcom period and companies such as Infosys gathered pace, Patni and his brothers grappled with the hardware and software segments. In 2001, the trio decided to split the business into two.

Sale regret
In May 2011, Nasdaq-listed IT services company iGate completed the acquisition of PCS, then India’s sixth-largest software exporter, for $1.2 billion.

“He (Narendra Patni) felt immense regret that a smaller company was buying out Patni, because of the circumstances; he wished it was the other way round. Because of the fight between the Patni brothers, he felt he had no choice,” said Phaneesh Murthy, former chief executive of Nasdaq-listed iGate, who was instrumental in acquiring PCS. “Narendra Patni had built a large company from scratch. That is always a huge challenge. It is really unfortunate that one of the fathers of the Indian IT sector is no more with us.”
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