Garbh-Ini Programme:
The Indian scientists working in the Garbh-Ini programme have identified 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), or genetic markers, that are associated with preterm or premature birth.
- Garbh-Ini programme promotes Maternal and Child Health and develops prediction tools for preterm birth.
- Garbh-Ini is a cohort study of pregnant women initiated in May 2015 at the civil hospital in Gurugram, Haryana, India.
- It is an initiative under the Department of Biotechnology of the Union Ministry of Science and Technology as a collaborative interdisciplinary programme.
- This program is led by the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), NCR Biotech cluster, Faridabad.
- It is part of the Atal Jai Anusandhan Biotech Mission – Undertaking Nationally Relevant Technology Innovation (UNaTI).
Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP):
- It is the most common type of genetic variation among people.
- Each SNP represents a difference in a single DNA building block, called a nucleotide.
- For example, an SNP may replace the nucleotide cytosine (C) with the nucleotide thymine (T) in a certain stretch of DNA.
- Most commonly these are found in the DNA between genes.
