Completed Brain & Nervous System Psychology & Behaviour

HTS - Maximising the value of MRC Brain Banks

Funder MRC (part of UKRI)
Recipient organisation University of Edinburgh
Funding £1.7M
Period Aug 2013 — Dec 2016

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Four UK brain banks will genetically profile 1,500 donated brains, linking DNA data to existing tissue samples and medical records. This matters because brain banks hold irreplaceable tissue from people who died with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, dementia with Lewy bodies, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, motor neurone disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, as well as healthy controls. Currently, most samples have detailed clinical and neuropathological data but lack systematic genetic information. Without it, researchers cannot connect genetic risk factors to the molecular and cellular changes visible in the tissue. This gap limits mechanistic studies and the ability to validate genetic findings in human brain tissue. If successful, the project will create a deeply characterised resource: each brain will have matched genetic, clinical, and pathological data. This will allow researchers to ask questions that were previously impossible—for example, how specific genetic variants influence protein aggregation, cell death, or inflammation in human brains. The resource will support both fundamental science into how neurodegeneration unfolds and translational work aimed at identifying drug targets or biomarkers. The data will be made available to the wider research community, amplifying its value beyond the four banks.

View original technical description
The aim of this study to maximise the value of the brain tissue samples available to the research community in the four MRC-funded brain banks by the systematic analysis and integration of data from genomic studies on cases currently available for research in the banks. . All MRC brain banks have ethics approval to function as tissue banks and to collect, store and release tissue samples and data from consented donors. Consent/authorisation for genetic research is recorded and will be used to identify cases for inclusion in this study. Governance mechanisms include local NHS governance, Human Tissue Authority licences and Healthcare Improvement Scotland accreditation, along with MRC policies on research governance. This study will involve the investigation of normal brains from a wide age range and brains from well-characterised disease cohorts in the MRC brain banks. We aim to genetically characterise 1500 representative brains with Alzheimer disease, dementia with Lewy bodies /Parkinson disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia/motor neurone disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and controls. The data generated will greatly enrich the clinical and neuropathological data currently associated with these samples. This work will therefore provide major added value to the exiting brain banks, opening up totally new opportunities for mechanistic and translational research in neurodegeneration and brain aging.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

James Ironside (Principal Investigator)Patrick Chinnery (Principal Investigator)

Related Research

Grants with similar aims, by meaning.

MRC Brain Banks: Joint Application to Underpin Neuroscience Research
MRC Network of UK Brain Banks: Support for the Coordinating Centre
UKCRC Brain Bank Strategy: Renewal of Newcastle Brain Tissue Resource
London Brain Bank for research on neurodegenerative diseases: a resource for the neuroscience research community
UCL Neurodegenerative Disease Human Tissue Resource

Original classification

Intramural

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.