Numerous parts of the brain are stored at the Dutch Brain Bank for research. David Verschoor, director of the Brain Foundation, took a look behind the scenes and spoke with Brain Bank director Inge Huitinga about this fascinating organization.
The Netherlands Brain Institute is located adjacent to the Amsterdam UMC. Within this is the Brain Bank: a place where parts of the brain are stored for research. People who are brain donors are eligible to donate their brains to the Brain Bank after their death. Researchers from all over the world request human tissue from the Brain Bank, which are small slices of the brain. They use this tissue to conduct research into, for example, dementia, depression and other brain disorders. Inge explains to David: “You are not automatically a brain donor, as that falls outside the standard donor registration. That makes it a challenge for us to obtain enough different types of brain donors. Yet since the Brain Bank was founded in 1985, we have been able to perform more than five thousand autopsies. An autopsy is an examination of the body after death. Thanks to these autopsies, researchers worldwide have already collected a lot of valuable information about the brain.”
The fascinating world of the Brain Bank
After an extensive introduction between David and Inge, Inge shows David around the different rooms of the Hersenbank. That brings them to a large room full of freezers. “It is -80 in these freezers,” Inge explains. “We store brain tissue in the large freezers you see here. Sometimes these are only very small slices of the brain, but they all contain important information.” Meanwhile, David asks questions about the Brain Bank. “How does the brain end up here?” he wants to know. Inge: “When a registered brain donor dies, the body is picked up by a funeral director and taken to the Amsterdam UMC. Within six hours we carefully remove the brain from the body and store the tissue for research. From then on, the information stored in the brain becomes available to us.”
Inge walks into another room. “Just sit down and I’ll show you,” she asks David. Together they look through a microscope while Inge talks. “Oh, look, here you see black nerve cells,” she begins. “By looking at these black nerve cells you can see whether someone has had Parkinson’s disease during their lifetime.” David, who is impressed: “Can anyone register as a brain donor? Or do you only want donors who have a brain disorder?” Inge: “Donors with certain brain disorders, such as various forms of dementia and psychiatric illnesses, can register. But just as valuable are donors without brain disease, so that researchers can properly compare diseased and healthy pieces of tissue. Sometimes we only find out what condition a donor had after someone’s death.”
Would you like to donate your brain after your death?
The Dutch Brain Bank wants to contribute to finding causes and solutions for neurological and psychiatric brain diseases. But they need help with that. The human brain is so complex that it cannot be imitated in animal models or in test tubes. The availability of human brain tissue for research is therefore essential.
Would you like to donate your brain after your death? Read more about this on this website.
Better treatments
David looks around in wonder. “Why is it important that good brain tissue is stored here and made available to researchers?” he asks Inge. She explains: “That is very important because the brain is difficult to research. A disease such as cancer is becoming increasingly treatable, partly because you can easily take a piece of a tumor in the body and examine it. That is not possible with the brain. We can only really get a good look into someone’s brain once a person has died. Because we store and make available brain tissue at the Brain Bank, researchers are learning more and more about the brain. This information will make it easier to correctly diagnose people with brain disorders and develop treatments in the future.”
Finally, the two directors enter a laboratory. Here the young researcher Dennis and the Spanish student Valentina are investigating a very small part of the brain. “They are investigating how recovery from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) can be improved,” Inge tells David. “We receive many international students, because the Netherlands has the largest and most important brain bank in the world. When I see them at work like this, I can’t help but be extremely proud. On them, on our organization. There are so many beautiful and important things happening here. Even though it takes a long time and that it is a puzzle every year to cover the costs, I stand here every day with good hope. We are happy that the Brain Foundation can support us thanks to its donors. Partly thanks to this grant, the Brain Bank can make more important brain research possible.”
Image: Roy Vermeij
Text: Rosanne Langenberg
Last time our director David visited WYzorg in Oisterwijk, where NAH swimming is offered. Read the report of that visit here.
Tags: fascinating world Brain Bank Articles
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