The New South Wales Tissue Resource Centre (NSW TRC) is an Australian brain bank dedicated to providing the highest quality human postmortem brain tissue to researchers, both nationally and internationally, who are working towards discovering the causes and consequences of different brain disorders.
The primary focus of our collection is to support research into the aetiology and pathogenesis of schizophrenia, alcohol disorders and healthy control tissue.
The TRC tissues are also provided to research groups for other neuroscientific investigations such as understanding the framework, composition and functioning of the human brain and the nature of neurological and neurodegenerative diseases.
The brain is a very complex structure. Many conditions such as bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, alcohol related brain disorders and other neurological and psychiatric conditions affect only humans. There are no synthetic or animal models available that can accurately replicate these conditions particularly in the case of MS and schizophrenia.
Brains from people affected with these illnesses are essential for research devoted to finding treatments and cures. Progress can be made towards finding the cause of neurological and psychiatric conditions if researchers can compare brains from those affected with brains from those who were not affected by such conditions. Normal brain tissue can also be used to study ageing of the human brain. Normal brain tissue is known as 'control' tissue and is extremely important to identify physiological and chemical differences between healthy tissue and 'abnormal' changes.
Research Groups
The NSW TRC has users of tissue both nationally and internationally. Some of our major research groups include:
| Dr Kelly Newell | Dr Newell is based at The University of Wollongong. Her research focuses on investigating causes of schizophrenia, specifically the role of the glutamatergic system, in the aetiology of schizophrenia, and how disruptions to this system affects other brain systems. |
| Associate Professor Roger Pamphlett | Associate Professor Pamphlett is based at the Discipline of Pathology at the University of Sydney. His research endeavours to find a genetic cause for motor neuron disease that will enable gene therapy to halt this condition. He is also the supervisor of the Australian Motor Neuron Disease DNA Bank. |
| Professor Glenda Halliday |
Professor Halliday is a prominent researcher currently working on the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases at the Prince of Wales Research Institute (POWMRI). Her research has highlighted broader pathological involvement in Parkinson's disease and especially in dementia with Lewy bodies. She is also the Director of the POWMRI Brain Bank. |
| Associate Professor Kay Double | Associate Professor Double heads a research group at the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute and investigates the neurochemistry of neurodegenerative disorders, with a particular focus on Parkinson's disease. |
| Professor Cynthia Shannon-Weickert | Professor Shannon-Weickert is a world renowned researcher currently based at the Prince of Wales Medicial Research Institute. Her research is focused on the molecular developmental neurobiology of schizophrenia. She is Australia's first Chair of Schizophrenia, a role supported by the Schizophrenia Research Institute. |
Publications
Some recent publications that have utilised NSW TRC tissue in their studies:
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Alexander-Kaufman, K., & Harper, C. (2009). Transketolase: observations in alcohol-related brain damage research. The International Journal of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, 41(4), 717-720. |
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Dedova, I., Harding, A., Sheedy, D., Garrick, T., Sundqvist, N., Hunt, C., et al. (2009). The importance of brain banks for molecular neuropathological research: the New South Wales Tissue Resource Centre experience. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 10(1), 366-384. |
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Flatscher-Bader, T., & Wilce, P. (2008). Impact of alcohol abuse on protein expression of midkine and excitatory amino acid transporter 1 in the human prefrontal cortex. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 32(10), 1849-1858. |
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Harper, C. (2009). The neuropathology of alcohol-related brain damage. Alcohol Alcohol, 44(2), 136-140. |
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Johansson, S., Ekstrom, T., Marinova, Z., Okvist, A., Sheedy, D., Garrick, T., et al. (2009). Dysregulation of cell death machinery in the prefrontal cortex of human alcoholics. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 12, 109-115. |
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Luquin, N., Yu, B., Trent, R. J., Morahan, J. M., & Pamphlett, R. (2008). An analysis of the entire SOD1 gene in sporadic ALS. Neuromuscular Disorders, 18(7), 545-552. |
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Morahan, J. M., Yu, B., Trent, R. J., & Pamphlett, R. (2009). A genome-wide analysis of brain DNA methylation identifies new candidate genes for sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, 1-12. |
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Nesvaderani, M., Matsumoto, I., & Sivagnanasundaram, S. (2009). Anterior hippocampus in schizophrenia pathogenesis: molecular evidence from proteome study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 43, 310-322. |