London Brain Bank for research on neurodegenerative diseases: a resource for the neuroscience research community

The purpose of the Brain Bank project is to advance the understanding, and enable research into the underlying causes, of neurodegenerative and neurological diseases by providing brain tissue to neuroscientists. The Brain Bank collects brain and spinal cord tissue from a variety of diseases, including Dementia (such as Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body Dementia), Autism, Schizophrenia and Motor Neurone Disease. Tissue is also collected from donors without such conditions to act as a healthy comparison in scientific studies.

Brain tissue is studied in detail by neuropathologists and the disease is diagnosed according to internationally agreed criteria. Samples of brain tissue in various fixation states, such as frozen and formalin-fixed, are made available to Neuroscience research centres throughout the UK to help study the causes and develop new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for brain diseases.

The Brain Bank enables donation of tissue through an ethically approved programme of informed consent, we aim to ensure donor care and keep contact with donor families, informing them of diagnosis and research progress. We follow the most recent ethical guidelines for best practice in Brain Banking, from recruiting donors and consent for post mortem examination to gold-standards of tissue collection, sample storage and the provision of tissue to researchers.

A further objective is to provide professional teaching, training, information and educational resources for neuroscientists. We also promote knowledge of brain banking through scientific meetings, public open days, collaboration with charities and MRC newsletters.

Well-characterised and neuropathologically-assessed brain tissue is one of the most important resources for research in neurodegeneration and vital for the further development of research strategies and future treatments. There has been spectacular progress during the last two decades, which has increased demand for high quality brain tissue from brain banks. The MRC Brain Bank at the IoP has become a leader in the field of brain banking and a major source of high quality brain tissue not only for researchers at the IoP and elsewhere in London but nationwide and thus contributed to the success of many research programmes. Material from the Brain Bank is also essential for the success of on-going research programmes. The aim of this application is to achieve the gold standard in brain banking by programmed brain donation, including regulated ad-hoc donations, following best practice in ethical matters relating to consenting, donor family care, high standards of storage of brain tissue and easy access to tissue for researchers. We aim to focus our banking on neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer?s Disease, Motor Neurone Disease and movement disorders but facilitate other smaller collections, such as psychosis and autism in order to enhance research in these areas. The ultimate goal is to contribute to understanding the mechanisms of neurodegeneration, in order to prepare the way for new scientifically based treatments and prevention as well as play an integral part in clinical studies and the evaluation of clinical trials.