INCF Malaysia Node Research To Help Patients With Brain Trauma, Dementia, Epilepsy

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 (Bernama) -- The Malaysia Node of the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) is to kick off with research projects to improve the outcomes of patients with brain trauma, dementia and epilepsy, according to Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). This collaboration will involve doctors, neuropsychologists and engineers from Malaysia and will be part of a larger European Commission-led study, CENTER-TBI, UTP, the Malaysian private university said in a statement. It also said that INCF will provide assistance through sharing of expertise in big data management and infrastructure, data standards, clinical protocols and will link Malaysia to global neuroscience experts from the Japan Brain/MINDS project and the European Human Brain Project. CENTER-TBI is a large project that aims to improve the care for patients with TBI or Traumatic Brain Injury. It forms part of the larger global initiative InTBIR or International Initiative for Traumatic Brain Injury Research, with projects currently ongoing in Europe, the United States and Canada. INCF is an international organisation that coordinates neuroinformatics research worldwide and facilitates data sharing and computing resources for neuroscience. UTP is hosting the INCF Malaysia Node at its Centre for Intelligent Signal & Imaging Research (CISIR), making CISIR UTP the only Malaysia node of the INCF, the university said in a statement. Vice Chancellor Abdul Rahim Hashim has hailed as a celebrated achievement the opportunity given to UTP to host the Malaysia Node of INCF through its CISIR. "As a rather young university, expanding the frontiers of knowledge and championing the development of technology to address society’s imperative challenges continue to be our aspiration. "It is therefore a remarkable opportunity for us to be part of the INCF," he had said at the launch of the INCF Malaysia Node on Oct 9, according to a UTP statement. The INCF Malaysia Node was launched by Deputy Higher Education Minister Mary Yap Kain Ching. Also present were INCF executive director Dr Linda Lanyon and INCF Japan Node head Prof Yoko Yamaguchi. After the launch, Yap had also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between UTP and Hitachi Data Systems Sdn Bhd (HDS) and Prince Court Medical Centre (PCMC) for collaborative work in the general area of biomedical technology. INCF Malaysia Node head Prof Ir Dr Ahmad Fadzil Mohd Hani had said that understanding the brain is one of the scientific grand challenges of the time. "Neuroinformatics is a new approach to handling the complexity in brain studies. "Biomedical engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, data scientists, physicists, biomedical engineers, statisticians and clinicians work together to apply big data analytics and computational neuroscience to extract insights from experimental studies by neuroscientists and geneticists. "Neuroinformatics integrates information across all scales of the brain, from genes, cells to functional networks and behaviour to develop a complete picture of the brain system,” he had said. --BERNAMA