Severe mental Illness are a major source of disability in young adults with about 2-3 % of the population at risk for developing these disorders both in India and across the world. These disorders are recognized as one of the major non-communicable diseases (NCD) and a significant contributor to morbidity as articulated by the World Health Organization's New Delhi call for action on combating NCDs in India. Given this huge disease burden, the development of novel ways to diagnose and treat mental illness will have important positive social and economic benefits. To achieve this goal, there is a pressing need to understand the mechanistic basis of these disorders; such discovery could form the basis for the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

Since 2015, NCBS has led the development of a research program to understand the genetic and cellular basis of severe mental illness through harnessing the power of modern human genetics and stem cell technology. This program uses modern technology to create stem cells from human subjects with a strong history of severe mental illness and uses these to create "disease-in-a-dish" models of the human brain. The program was set up in 2015 as collaborative initiative of three institutions from Bengaluru, India, the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) - the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine (inStem), and the National Institute for Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) supported between 2016-2022 by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and the Pratiksha Trust. Since 2023 the program is funded through generous support from Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies as a collaborative effort between NCBS and NIMHANS as the Rohini Nilekani Centre for Brain and Mind.

National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS)

NIMHANS, Bangalore,  works on the clinical aspects of mental disorders. NIMHANS has established cohorts for several mental disorders such as dementia, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, addiction and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Doctors at NIMHANS will map the evolution of neuropsychiatric illness via detailed and serial clinical assessment of patients and at-risk individuals from families with high incidences of disorders over several years.