Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center:
The Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center has been established at
McLean Hospital as a centralized resource for the collection and
distribution of human brain specimens for brain research. Research
over the past decade has shown that the study of human brain tissue
is essential to increasing our understanding of how the nervous
system functions. Most recently, postmortem human brain research
has played a significant role in the development of a genetic test for
Huntington's disease as well as a treatment for Parkinson's disease.
Similarly, neurochemical and anatomical studies focusing on the
biological nature of the severe mental illnesses are now emerging
and bringing forth new hope for understanding the underlying brain
mechanisms responsible for psychosis and other symptoms
associated with these debilitating brain disorders. In order to perform
research into the neurological or psychiatric disorders, it is vital to
collect normal control tissue as well.
Scientists from the nation's top research and medical centers
request tissue from The Brain Bank for their investigations. Since the
majority of these studies can be carried out on a very small amount of
tissue, each donated brain provides a large number of samples for
many researchers. However, in order to conduct valid experiments, it
is necessary to supply researchers with a variety of brain specimens.
If you are interested in receiving additional information about brain
donation, please call Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center directly
or visit their website:
http://www.brainbank.mclean.org
(800) 272-4622
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