As part of a coordinated nation-wide push to advance the understanding of brain-related disorders that affect millions of Americans, the University of Miami (UM) Brain Endowment Bank has received up to $8 million from the National Institutes of Health to expand its biorepository, increase tissue access to researchers and to educate the public on the need for donated tissue and the growing threat of brain-related disease.

 

Established in 1987, the UM Brain Endowment Bank is one of the largest in the U.S. and one of five NIH-funded facilities included in this new effort to advance research in Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injuries, autism, depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.

 

“The brain is our next biological frontier,” said Dr. Deborah C. Mash, Director of the Brain Endowment Bank and professor of neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “We continue to develop new tools and methods to advance brain research, but there is a shortage of tissue available for scientists. Our main goal is to eliminate that shortage and accelerate new discoveries.”

 

The Brain Endowment Bank has a biorepository of more than 2,000 brains and 500 living donors on its registry to donate their brains upon death. Within a few years, Dr. Mash would like to double both of those numbers. The funding will also play a role in establishing best practice protocols and quality standards for acquiring, processing and storing collected tissue donated for research and coordinate the effort to provide tissues to qualified scientists and doctors.

 

“We need everyone’s help in reaching out to those who wish to advance medical science with this important final gift,” said Dr. Mash. “The donors and their families should know that their gift could lead to the next crucial breakthrough in these devastating diseases.”