Research_

NSW Brain Tissue Resource Centre

A University of Sydney brain bank

We support the advancement of medical research into neurological illnesses by collecting, characterising and storing brain and spinal cord tissue and providing specimens for merit-based research.

We're a specialised brain bank based at the University of Sydney Charles Perkins Centre. The primary focus of our collection is to support research into the aetiology and pathogenesis of alcohol disorders, mental health disorders and healthy control tissue.

We operate in collaboration with the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in the US and have ethics approval from the University of Sydney.

The BTRC fully certified by the NSW Health Pathology Biobank Certification Program. The voluntary certification scheme aims to improve and harmonise biobanking standards through education and communication of best practices and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Our mission is to enable the advancement of medical research into neurological illnesses to understand, treat and cure disease. It is only possible through the generosity of our donors and donor families, who, with great foresight and kindness, give at a time of loss so that others may be helped in the future.

Our donor program

We established the 'Using our Brains' donor program in 2002 as a pre-mortem consent program inviting members of the community to donate their brain to neuroscience research after they die. Our collections focus on controls, alcohol-related brain damage and mental illness, specifically schizophrenia.

We encourage those affected with specific brain disorders and those who are medically healthy to donate. Healthy brain tissue is known as 'control' tissue and is an important resource for researchers to identify physiological and chemical differences between healthy tissue and 'abnormal' changes.

Research_