Union Government launches Manav human atlas initiative for holistic understanding of human body

The new human atlas initiative – named Manav – has been launched by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Persistent Systems for holistic understanding of human body. The aim of the initiative is to create a unified database of molecular network of all the tissues in the human body and to derive a holistic picture of working of human body. The database would eventually help researchers in identifying gaps in current knowledge and help in future projects in diagnostics and disease biology. In this public-private venture, DBT and Persistent Systems will invest Rs 13 crore and Rs 7 crore respectively. The project will be executed by Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and National Center for Cell Sciences (NCCS) based at Pune.