Anita Mahadevan

Key facts

• A national expert database profile lists her as Professor in the Department of Neuropathology at NIMHANS, Bangalore, since December 2012, with an MD; it does not state a head of department role.
• She was first author of a 2002 NIMHANS study of eight frontal cortex biopsies from CJD patients: abnormal prion protein was found in five, and the staining pattern changed with illness duration, from diffuse synaptic labelling to perivacuolar deposits and plaques.
• She coauthored the NIMHANS in-house dot blot assay for CSF 14-3-3 (50 CJD cases against 70 disease controls), presented as a low-cost alternative to imported kits.
• Her other prion papers include a Heidenhain variant CJD autopsy report (2009), a familial CJD commentary with S. K. Shankar (2019), a PRNP-linked dominant ataxia case (2020) and a NIMHANS EEG series of 50 probable sCJD patients (2020).
• In the EEG series, 88 percent of probable sCJD patients had abnormal EEG and 66 percent had periodic sharp wave complexes, and the authors describe EEG as an inexpensive diagnostic aid where other tests are scarce.
• A 2021 NIMHANS recruitment notice names her as principal investigator of the ICMR-funded project to set up satellite brain banks in India.
• Brain Bank Network India, funded by ICMR, has the NIMHANS Brain Bank as its nodal centre, with satellites at AIIMS Bhubaneswar and PGIMER Chandigarh; it lists CJD among its neurodegenerative research themes and takes tissue requests through a researcher portal and enquiry form.
• In 2024 she was the NIMHANS contributor to an international expert panel on challenges in brain tissue banking (consent, regulation, funding, standardisation).
• She coauthored a survey of neuropathology in 52 Indian tertiary centres (online December 2024): most centres run neuropathology inside general pathology, only about 17 percent treat it as a separate specialty, and advanced molecular tests are limited to a few centres.
• Her 2024 to 2026 indexed papers deal with epilepsy pathology, neuroinfections, autoimmune encephalitis, dementia and brain banking, and none of the titles found is a prion or CJD paper.

Timeline

1. 2002First-author study of prion protein immunohistochemistry in CJD brain biopsies published.
2. 2009Heidenhain variant CJD autopsy study published.
3. 2012Listed as Professor of Neuropathology at NIMHANS.
4. 2016CSF 14-3-3 dot blot assay paper published.
5. 2019Familial CJD commentary with S. K. Shankar published.
6. 2020PRNP-linked dominant ataxia case report published.
7. 2020EEG observations in 50 probable sCJD patients published.
8. 2021Recruitment notice names her as PI of the ICMR Brain Bank Network India project.
9. 2024Expert panel on challenges in brain tissue banking published.
10. 2024Survey of neuropathology practice in India published online.
11. 2025TREAT-Dem study of treatable dementias published online, with her as coauthor.