Obviously the brains we have in our heads develop from conception to death but where do the brains we use for research come from?
It is important for researches to have access to brain tissue to investigate the pathologies and in-turn possible preventions/treatments. Also, it is not just pathological tissue that is needed as we need healthy control brains to. Researchers rely on brain donations to continue their research on growing epidemics, such as dementia.
Each year, hundreds of brains are donated and multiple ‘brain banks’ that brain tissue can go to and the donator can choose between them. There are ten centres, to be exact, that belong to the medical Research Council’s Brain Bank Network.
Between the brain banks, they hold approximately fourteen-thousand brains. Each donated brain holds hundreds of samples meaning that the brains can last over twenty years in holding.
For more information and to sign up to the donation register click here.
