Brain donation
CHeBA has an established brain tissue donation program which operates in collaboration with the Sydney Brain Bank.
Research participants are asked whether they would consider bequeathing their brain tissue for medical research – similar to people donating tissue for organ transplants. To date, more than 80 participants have donated their brain and with the tissue available, researchers are actively working to identify the features and changes in brain tissue which underlie brain-ageing and the onset of dementia.
In the event of your loved one’s passing, call our Brain Donation Hotline as soon as possible on (02) 8936 1100 and ask for the Brain Donation Liaison Officer to be paged.
The CHeBA Brain Donation Program also collaborated with the Victorian Brain Bank Network, which stopped taking donations in 2021. The CHeBA Brain Donation Program collects brain tissue from donors sourced from the Memory & Ageing Study (MAS), Older Australian Twins Study (OATS), and the Sydney Centenarian Study (SCS). As all our donors have participated in our longitudinal research, CHeBA possesses rich and extensive pre-mortem clinical, behavioural, and biomarker data on its donors. This allows a unique opportunity to analyse post-mortem brain tissue and neuropathology relative to pre-mortem health, and the possibility of studying the neural pathology and outcomes of normal ageing and dementia at the microscopic level. Our research participants range from healthy ‘controls’ to those with mild cognitive impairment and dementia, as well as including rare phenotypes such as the extreme-elderly (95+ years) and twins. This allows for the opportunity to do detailed research into multiple aspects of ageing including healthy ageing, dementia and cognitive decline, as well as the role of genetics in ageing.
For all non-urgent matters relating to the program, please contact:
- Vibeke Catts, PhD, Research Manager
- T +61 2 9385 7626