Platforms
Australian
Brain Bank Network (ABBN)
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Platforms |
| About the ABBN This information is aimed at promoting understanding of the purpose and importance of this unique network of brain banks across Australia. Brain and mind disorders are major public health and socio-economic problems throughout the world. Research into many of these disorders is compromised by the lack of either animal or in vitro models and still relies heavily on studying post mortem human central nervous system (CNS) tissues. |
The role of the ABBN is to: |
| To provide Australian and International researchers with easy access to well-characterised tissue on which they can conduct analyses related to their fields of endeavour. Tissue is available from people diagnosed with a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, motor neuron disease, multiple sclerosis, CJD, Huntington's disease, schizophrenia, depression, prion disease, bipolar disorder and alcohol related brain damage. |
To provide a national service for neuropathological analysis of tissue samples. This is available to researchers and gives access to authoritative analysis without having to duplicate existing infrastructures or replicate expense of resources. |
To enhance existing brain donor programs (recruitment for donation during life). Donor tissue for research is unique as it provides post mortem tissue from longitudinally, prospectively studied patients, with excellent clinical information and tissues collected in a timely fashion. The ABBN incorporates tissue from control donors through Using
Our Brains voluntary tissue donation program for comparative studies
of disease states. |
To ensure disease cohort sizes are sufficient to sustain research demands. |
To continue to review and improve the quality and treatment of CNS tissue collected. With the development of new technologies in pathology and molecular biology researchers will be able to access the ABBN for an ever-increasing number of scientific applications. |
To promote and encourage Australian research groups, with an interest in neurological and psychiatric disorders, to utilise post mortem CNS tissue for ethically approved research projects. |
To provide a forum for continuing education and training opportunities. Each brain bank has links to clinical neuropathology units and university departments and all are involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate (research and professional) teaching. |
To provide expertise in a diverse range of neurological and psychiatric diseases. ABBN members have links to the broader scientific community through their involvement in national and international societies and other professional groups. The members have a spectrum of expertise including biochemical, pharmacological, clinical, genetic, and histologic and neuroimaging skills. |
To support frontier technologies, as the national resource becomes more widely utilised, researchers including those outside the field of neuroscience will be able to develop technologies based on the use of human CNS tissue rather than other model systems. |