About Us
The 'Using our Brains' (UoB) Tissue Donor Program is an Australian brain bank located at the NSW Tissue Resource Centre, a world class facility that aims to collect, store, characterize and provide tissue to both national and international researchers studying different disorders of the brain like alcohol-related brain damage and mental illness, specifically schizophrenia.
The UoB was established in 2002 as a pre mortem consent program inviting members of the community to donate their brain to neuroscience research after they die. The aim of this donor program is to encourage those who are medically healthy to donate. Healthy control tissue is an important resource for researchers to compare brains from those affected with specific disorders. There are many new scientific techniques that allow us to use these tissues to learn about disease processes and how we can treat or prevent them.
The UoB has ethics approval from the Sydney South West Area Health Service (RPAH Zone) and The University of Sydney.
Mission Statement
|
Engage and inform the community about the need for brain tissue donation for research |
|
Provide opportunity for the community to donate brain tissue for research |
|
Facilitate the donation process |
|
Support the wide range of research performed by both national and international institutions |
Director- Professor Jillian Kril |
Tissue Team- Julia Stevens, Donna Sheedy, Meichen Say |
Clinical Team- Nina Sundqvist, Toni McCrossin |
Tissue Retrieval- Dr Antony Harding |
Funding
This program is supported by the Australian Federal Government and the New South Wales State Government, the US Government under the National Institutes of Health (NIAAA grant AA012725-10), the University of Sydney and the Sydney South West Area Health Service. The program is operated under the guidance of Jillian Kril, Professor of Neuropathology at The University of Sydney.
