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About Us Through deep interrogation of brain networks via brain imaging and clinical electrophysiology as well as sub-cellular networks using molecular and cellular analysis, we aim to move towards a 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. Changes in the structure and function of the brain that result in mental illness are poorly understood. Neither do we know why some individuals are more prone to developing mental illness than others. Studying these underlying changes in the brain will likely lead to better methods to diagnose and treat mental illness. Our Objecti ves Investigate Psychiatric Disorders & Establish Databases Establish and investigate a large cohort of families with severe psychiatric illnesses & healthy controls Establish an informative, digital database of research outcomes alongside a repository of biological samples Research Focus Understand the causes, connections and courses of severe psychiatric illnesses Explore potential interventions and treatments Advanced Techniques Employ advanced techniques in imaging, genetics, and stem cell biology towards understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind these disorders Open Source and Collaboration Commit to openness and collaboration by making the database and repository open-source Emphasise public engagement and community outreach Nodal Centres Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences The National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) is a world-renowned, multi-disciplinary centre for patient care, academics and cutting-edge research in the field of mental health and neuroscience. With its history dating back to 1847, the Central Government recognized its eminent academic position, growth and contributions, and declared it a ‘Deemed University’ in 1994. In 2012, NIMHANS was conferred the status of an ‘Institute of National Importance’. National Centre for Biological Sciences The National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), located in Bangalore, is part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Established in 1992, It is a premier research institute with research interests of faculty members lying in the frontier areas of biology, and the science at NCBS (a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) uses experimental and computational approaches in the study of molecules, cells and organisms. Funding Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies , led by Rohini Nilekani, is a catalyst for positive social change in India. With a focus on education, water conservation, healthcare, and social justice, the foundation collaborates with diverse stakeholders to implement innovative solutions. Prioritising community empowerment and amplifying marginalised voices, it strategically invests for lasting impact. Board of Advisors Prof Mriganka Sur Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, USA Prof Matcheri Keshavan Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, USA Prof Mani Ramaswami Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland Prof PSVN Sharma Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India

Project Associate nikithamn595@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Nikitha Purohit Project Associate CBM, DBT/IA Lithium Nikitha is a neuropsychologist associated with the Centre for Brain and Mind, NIMHANS. She holds a Master’s degree in Neuropsychology and has experience working in clinical and research settings, contributing to digital mental health interventions and neuroscience-related projects. Her interests lie at the intersection of brain, behavior, and mental health. Outside of work, she enjoys reading novels, dancing, and exploring creative writing.

Project Associate preethi1682000@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Lab Team Preethi KP Project Associate CBM Preethi is a Project Associate( Lab) at the Centre for Brain and Mind. With a Master’s degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding and working in Plant- pathogen interactions lab, Preethi has experience in molecular techniques like Cloning, qRT PCR, PAGE, Western blotting etc:- She love to dance, play badminton and enjoys listening to music!

Professor, Department of Biostatistics kthenna@gmail.com LinkedIn | Google Scholar Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr Thennarasu Kandavel Professor, Department of Biostatistics

Psychiatric Social Worker sreeshmaa1999@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Sreeshma A Psychiatric Social Worker CBM

Lab Senior Scientist (Equivalent to Research Associate Professor), Department of Psychiatry reeteka@gmail.com Twitter | LinkedIn ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7866-6983 Resilience and representation in research: In conversation with Reeteka Sud Stress primes brain hub to trigger freezing for unrelated fears Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Stem Cell Research Dr Reeteka Sud Lab Senior Scientist (Equivalent to Research Associate Professor), Department of Psychiatry CBM How can patient-derived stem cells help connect the dots, from genomic risk to clinical diagnosis -- this is the unifying research theme for my various projects. My expertise lies broadly at the intersection of Genetics, Neuroscience and Psychiatry. I head the CBM Biorepository at NIMHANS, where we bank biospecimen from psychiatric patients, including stem cells, DNA, plasma and serum. I am also very passionate about scicomm/public outreach on mental health conditions Select Publications 2026 PrecInNor: An Indo-Norway collaborative programme for precision psychiatry training | Asian J Psychiatry 2025 Defining suicidality phenotypes for genetic studies: perspectives of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Suicide Working Group | Molecular Psychiatry The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: discoveries and directions | Lancet Psychiatry The measurement of agitation in neurocognitive disorders: A systematic review | Alzheimer's & Dementia 2024 Exploring Mental Health Stima in the context of Psychiatric Genetics: Insights from the ISPG Stigma Reduction SIG Survey The STEM Arena in India: A Story of Exclusion in Many Colors Altered neuroepithelial morphogenesis and migration defects in iPSC-derived cerebral organoids and 2D neural stem cells in familial bipolar disorder | Oxford Open Neurosci Projects Deciphering the molecular mechanisms of treatment-resistant schizophrenia and clozapine response: To understand the genomic and cellular predictors of treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) and clozapine response using genome-wide association study (GWAS) and induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSC): Here our aim is to: Identify genomic factors underlying TRS and clozapine response Elucidate cellular mechanisms of TRS and clozapine response in IPSC-derived organoids Evaluate the translational utility of these genetic/cellular markers as predictors of TRS and clozapine response using existing prospective cohorts (Funding from PGRN, BFI Foundation) Subcellular Dynamics in Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Our recent work highlights the manifold ways in which sub-cellular organelles may be driving disease pathogenesis. We discovered connections between APOE genotype and ribosome biogenesis, which could be significant for ADRD pathogenesis, and is currently under investigation. We are also using techniques like ExM to study how cytoskeletal structures mediate the workings of antipsychotic drugs, and by extension, be affected in psychotic disorders. (Funding from Ben Barres Award, Axilor Labs) Key Research Outputs (C) Direction of migration. C1-C3 cells migrated in a relatively directional pattern. B1 and B2 cells, however, migrated in a random, non-directed manner. Both BD lines showed back-and-forth movement, and directional and circular patterns of migration. (D) Sample migratory paths of control and patient-derived lines over 15 h. Abnormalities in the migration of neural precursor cells in familial bipolar disorder The trajectories of migrating neural precursors lay the foundations of the developing central nervous system. Here we demonstrate identifiable cellular abnormalities in NPCs derived from BD patients. The BD patients in this study were chosen from a dense family, who had multiple rare damaging variants implicated in cellular migration, and had structural abnormalities noted on brain MRI scans ( Fig. 1 A). Cellular migration analysis showed that although patient-derived NPCs showed a random trajectory, the NPCs from healthy controls migrated towards other cells (directed/ballistic movement) ( Fig. 1 C-D). Integration of deep clinical phenotyping with investigations into cellular mechanisms in patient-derived IPSCs, as reported here, can provide much-needed comprehensive understanding of psychiatric disorders. Cell cycle abnormality is a cellular phenotype in OCD A critical and yet unanswered question in Psychiatry is how might clinical phenotypes manifest in terms of cellular readouts. This study was conducted to determine differences in cell cycle in patient-derived cells vs controls A) Illustrates the placement of Indian samples between European and East Asian clusters, highlighting notable regional variability. Asian PCA with HGDP samples. B) Presents a north-south ancestral gradient, correlated with latitude. SVM predictions. C) Decile-based risk stratification in BD A cross ancestry genetic study of psychiatric disorders from India We estimated the extent of population stratification as well as the predictive accuracy of polygenic scores (PGS) derived from European samples to a data set from India. Our analyses reveal global and continental PCA overlap with other South Asian populations. Admixture analysis revealed a north-south genetic axis within India (FST 1.6%). The Bayesian PGS analyses indicates moderate-to-high predictive power for BD.

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Senior Professor Dpt. Of Psychiatry Google Scholar Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Molecular Genetics Dr Sanjeev Jain Senior Professor Dpt. Of Psychiatry Sanjeev Jain is a clinician and a teacher, and researches the genetic correlates of psychiatric and neurological disease. He studied medicine at the Delhi University (Maulana Azad Medical College); and did his post-graduate studies at the NIMHANS. He has been a Commonwealth Fellow at Cambridge (UK), and the co-Director of a NIH-Fogarty training and mentorship program. He has provided the lead for, and participated in, several population and cohort studies, and also provides genetic testing for several neuro-degenerative disorders, as well as counseling services for these families. This work includes the genetics of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease, as well as addiction and OCD. Over the past few years, discussions and collaboration with other colleagues at NIMHANS, the NCBS and inSTEM, have extended the research from the clinic, to the bench, using both clinical assessments (including MRI, EEG etc.) as well as tools of cellular and molecular biology, including WES, iPSC and neuronal cell lines from individuals diagnosed to have psychiatric illnesses, and their affected and unaffected relatives. He has been a member of the committee for drafting the Mental Health Policy document for India; and is also an Adjunct Faculty at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (TIFR), Bangalore. His other interests include the history of mental health services in India, from the colonial to the contemporary period. This work has helped understand the interface between science and medicine, and social responses to mental illness in India. The work has been supported by various funding agencies in India (DBT, ICMR, DST and the CSIR), as also the Wellcome Trust, NIH (Fogarty) and the MRC-ICMR. Gopikumar, V., Narasimhan, L., Easwaran, D., Srinivas, A., R, K., Moideen, P., Sivayokan, S., Rohatgi, P., Padmakar, A., Rajesh, V., Ravi, M., Krishnadas, P., Margaret, A., Hamlai, M., Sharma, C., Joseph, S., Venkateswaran, C., Ck, K., Sn, S., … Ravikanth, L. (2025). From institutions to homes: Evaluation of a housing with supportive services intervention for people with psychosocial disabilities with histories of homelessness. SSM - Mental Health , 7 , 100424. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2025.100424 Parthaje, S., Janardhanan, M., Paul, P., Karunakaran, K. B., Deb, A. P., Shankarappa, B., Pal, P. K., Mahadevan, A., Jain, S ., Viswanath, B., & Purushottam, M. (2025). CAG Repeat Instability and Region-Specific Gene Expression Changes in the SCA12 Brain. The Cerebellum , 24 (3), 60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-025-01808-z Ratna, N., Venkatesh, S. D., Pasupulati, S., Murari, G., Kamble, N., Viswanath, B., Yadav, R., Varghese, M., Pal, P. K., Jain, S. , & Purushottam, M. (2025). Allelic Diversity, de novo CAG Expansions, and Intergenerational Instability at the HTT Locus in a clinical sample of Huntington’s Disease from India . https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.03.21260193 Shankarappa, B., Prasad, V. P., Kumar, S., Rao, R. S., Royal, A. B., Swamy, M., Prasad, P., Niranjana Murthy, A. S., Ganesh, S., Viswanath, B., Jain, S. , Purushottam, M., & Thyloth, M. (2024). A Novel Homozygous Variant in CPLANE1 Gene in a Patient with Developmental Deficits. Molecular Syndromology , 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1159/000541167 Vinod, P., Sen, S., Jayasankar, P., Janardhanan, M., Paul, P., Viswanath, B., Jain, S ., Harbishettar, V., Sivakumar, P. T., & Purushottam, M. (2024). Does Apolipoprotein E polymorphism play a role in familial Alzheimer’s Dementia. Alzheimer’s & Dementia , 20 (S1), e087257. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.087257

Professor, Department of Psychiatry Google Scholar Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr Muralidharan Kesavan Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Director & Senior Professor, Department of Psychiatry ResearchGate Back Back to People Page Back Co-Investigator Team Dr Pratima Murthy Director & Senior Professor, Department of Psychiatry Dr. Pratima brings about 30 years of extensive experience and exceptional accomplishments in the field of mental health. A well-recognized leader in addiction psychiatry, she has been instrumental in the successful development of state-of-the-art Centre for Addiction Medicine at NIMHANS. She has served as a consultant to prominent international agencies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). She has also served as a resource person for various flagship training programmes in substance abuse prevention and tobacco cessation in the country, and across the globe. Dr Pratima is also recognised for her contribution in improving care for persons with mental illness through her work with the National Human Rights Commission on quality assurance in mental health care both in institutions and in the community. In recognition of her research and academic excellence, Dr. Pratima has received numerous awards and honours including the prestigious Dr. Raja Ramanna State Award by the Government of Karnataka and Lifetime Achievement Award from Rotary. Recently, she was honoured with the WHO Regional Director’s Special Recognition Award on ‘World No Tobacco Day 2021’ for her remarkable service in tobacco control. A prolific author, she has more than 300 research publications in various international indexed journals and scientific books to her credit. Dr. Pratima received her MBBS degree from Bangalore Medical College in 1985. She obtained DPM and MD (Psychological Medicine) from NIMHANS in 1987 and 1989 respectively. She joined as a faculty at her alma mater in 1993, and has worked in various academic capacities since then. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), Glasgow.

Psychiatric Social Worker (Research) suvarnashruthin@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Shruthi N Psychiatric Social Worker (Research) CBM

Clinical Postdoctoral Fellow (Equivalent to Senior Resident-Psychiatry) shailys16rntudr@gmail.com Back Back to People Page Back Clinical Team Dr Shaily S Singh Clinical Postdoctoral Fellow (Equivalent to Senior Resident-Psychiatry) CBM