The long-term goal of CBR is to enable ‘healthy aging’ through significant contribution to minimising the burden of neurodegenerative diseases. CBR is presently working on developing a composite biomarker for early detection of dementia and design scalable interventions to prevent/postpone dementia. Towards this, the Centre integrates expertise in neuroscience, clinical research, genomics, data science, and engineering to advance early diagnosis, prevention, and intervention strategies. CBR’s large-scale cohort studies, multidisciplinary research, and commitment to innovative partnerships place it at the forefront of aging brain research in India.

CBR has embarked on setting up a Biomarker Centre of Excellence in collaboration with the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) and with support from Gates Ventures and Pratiksha Trust. This ambitious initiative aims to establish a sophisticated platform for the discovery and validation of neurodegenerative disease biomarkers. In addition to plasma biomarkers, the Centre will also explore digital biomarkers to build a more comprehensive understanding of disease onset and progression.

A unique strength of this Centre of Excellence is that it will function under the scientific guidance of Professor Henrik Zetterberg (UK DRI and University of Gothenburg), a globally recognised pioneer in biomarker research, and Professor Siddharthan Chandran, Director of the UK DRI, both of whom are Visiting Faculty Members at CBR. By working closely with Professors Zetterberg and Chandran, the Centre will integrate the state-of-the-art in fluid biomarker assays, high-throughput proteomics, and AI-driven analytics with unique, diverse cohorts from India and the UK in order to accelerate breakthroughs in early diagnosis. The Centre of Excellence will foster cross-institutional partnerships, training, and knowledge exchange to build capacity and advance global brain health research.