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The Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI-DAD) is a population-representative, prospective cohort study of late-life cognition and dementia. It is part of an ongoing international research collaboration that aims to measure and understand cognitive impairment and dementia risk by collecting a set of cognitive and neuropsychological assessments and informant reports, referred to as the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP). LASI-DAD provides nationally representative data drawn from a subsample of the ongoing Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI). One of LASI-DAD's distinctive features is its rich geriatric assessment, including the collection of venous blood samples and brain imaging data for a subsample of respondents. In this paper, we discuss the methodological considerations of developing and implementing the HCAP protocol in India. The lessons we learned from translating and applying the HCAP protocol in an environment where illiteracy and innumeracy are high will provide important insights to researchers interested in measuring and collecting data on late-life cognition and dementia in developing countries. We further developed an innovative blood management system that enables us to follow the collection, transportation, assay, and storage of samples. Such innovation can benefit other population surveys collecting biomarker data.

Lack of homogeneity in lineages of tumour cell population, in addition to constant evolution of abnormal cells, results in intratumour heterogeneity. Tumour prognosis, to a great extent, depends on the permutations and combinations in which one or more clonal lineage prevails. This directly affects therapeutic decisions as tumour sensitivity, or resistance to a particular treatment is reflected in the heterogeneity it presents. In this context, geographic predisposition presents a different dimension which may drive this heterogeneity in a particular direction and is probably the larger set of cause followed by subsets of causes like clonal evolution or cancer stem cells which result in the idiopathic nature of tumour heterogeneity. However, the geographic pervasiveness of cancers has not been studied in depth in context to tumour heterogeneity. The suffix “-omics” denotes a study in total of that particular stream of science. For example, the study of genome is referred to as genomics. Off late, multi-omics approaches encompassing a systemic understanding of cancer tissues have shed immense light in understanding the molecular basis of tumour heterogeneity with regard to the classical models traditionally proposed to explain the heterogeneity. Genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and transcriptomics have received an enormous boost with emergence and evolution of high-throughput technology like mass spectrometry and next-generation sequencing. This chapter discusses briefly about the type of tumour heterogeneity noticed especially in context of the developing world and how OMICS-based research can bring about a revolution in understanding any geographic bias that may exist and contribute to tumour heterogeneity.

The enormous burden of infectious as well as noninfectious diseases makes biomarker discovery-based research an imperative in the developing world. The extent of diversity and heterogeneity in the type of diseases that plague the low- and middle-income group nations often show a stark difference with the diseases that affect the developed countries. In order to enable global efforts to combat any given disease, it is important for researchers to have a large number of reliable biospecimens on which they could validate their findings. Inappropriate representation of samples at primary stages of research has sometimes been attributed to researchers not being able to find gold-standard biomarkers. To capture the disease heterogeneity in the subjects ranging from genetic and ethnic diversity to the underlying pathogenesis, it is important to create a resource which could facilitate the availability of biospecimens from a large cohort of subjects along with their clinical annotation, which can be studied by researchers for reliable biomarker discovery. Moreover, biorepositories are also necessary resources for facilitating validation-based studies following the discovery phase. This chapter summarizes the pressing need for well-planned and managed biorepositories as one of the primary steps to facilitate reliable biomarker discovery in the developing world.

Context : Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a disease with controversies regarding co-morbidities. Studies have noted there are some doubts due to the disease's heterogeneity and cultural influence. Some studies have reflected that women are more likely to have Major depressive disorder(MDD) as co-morbidity while the impact of gender on co-morbid generalized anxiety disorder(GAD) was inconclusive. There are few Indian studies in this regard and hence this cross-sectional study was performed in a tertiary referral centre in Eastern India. Material and method : 100 consecutive eligible patients with OCD(Male=41,Female=59) were interviewed. The data were recorded for socio-demographic profile, depression and anxiety comorbidities. Results : The mean age of the study sample was 32.73 yrs, mostly from rural background(82%) and nuclear families (62%).The subjects were found to be suffering mostly from co-morbid MDD(85%) and GAD(83%).93% of our female subjects had co-morbid MDD while 90% of them had co-morbid GAD. The corresponding percentages for 41 males was 73%(for both MDD and GAD). Gender had an impact on both these co-morbid diagnoses(P-value