SUMMARY

Infosys co-founder and former CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan has announced a donation of USD 1.8 million for the Carnegie Mellon University in the US to establish a research tie-up with the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore for studying aging related disorders of the brain like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

“Carnegie Mellon University is a world-renowned leader in many areas of research and education. I am very pleased to support President Subra Suresh’s strategic vision for the collaboration between CMU and IISc through this gift so that we can address one of the grand challenges of our times by understanding the human brain,” Gopalakrishnan said.

The CBR at the IISc was set up earlier this year with funding from a charitable trust set up by the former Infosys CEO.

The partnership between the Carnegie Mellon Universoty, one of the foremost in brain research and the Centre for Brain Research at the IISc aims to leverage the research strengths of the two premier research institutions.

“This partnership will provide opportunities for applying new technologies from fields ranging from imaging to machine learning to address critical questions about neuro-degeneration and one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity is to understand the human brain. Our hope is that this new research collaboration will lead to discoveries about neuro–degenerative diseases that afflict the aging population, and that those findings help improve our diagnostic and treatment capabilities for such diseases,” Carnegie Mellon University president Subra Suresh said.opalkrishnan who was instrumental in taking Infosys from a start up in 1981 to a USD 8 billion revenue company, has a personal wealth valued at USD 1.4 billion and is among the top 1500 billionaires in the world at present.

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The New Indian Express/ Home> Cities> Bangalore / by Express News Service / Banglaore – July 17th, 2014