A new brain bank will be launched tomorrow to help make valuable donated tissue available for research into brain and nerve diseases. Claire O'Connellreports
YOUR BRAIN - you can't take it with you when you go, but if left in the right hands it could be an invaluable gift to patients of the future. That's why a new "brain bank" to be launched in Dublin tomorrow is encouraging people to think about donating their brains to research after death.
Doing so could help scientists shed light on currently incurable conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease, according to Prof Michael Farrell, a neuropathologist with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Beaumont Hospital, where the new brain bank is housed.
"Every other country in Europe has a brain bank, but the bottom line is that in Ireland there have been no brain-banking facilities," says Farrell, who is one of four consultant neuropathologists in Ireland.
"Over the last seven or eight years we have been requested on many occasions by relatives of patients - or indeed by patients themselves - to examine their brains after they have died in order to get a diagnosis," he explains. "On the other hand, there are fantastic neuroscientists in Ireland looking for access to brain tissue on well-studied Irish patients. So we are responding to a need."
Human brain and spinal tissue - both healthy and diseased - are precious resources for researchers looking at neurodegenerative conditions that don't crop up naturally in other animals, explains Farrell.
"You can engineer them but then you have altered the normal physiological process, it's not the same," he says. "You can learn about the basic biological processes but you have to then go and see do they operate in a human system."
Already Irish researchers working on donated human brain tissue have identified important mechanisms by which nerve cells die in Alzheimer's disease, he notes.
These kinds of breakthroughs are facilitated by brain donations, which until now have been managed ad hoc in Ireland, according to Farrell.
The new brain bank in Dublin will co-ordinate efforts and help make brain tissue and relevant medical information available to the research that will benefit from it.
"We don't need a lot of space, just enough for three or four freezers. But it's more than just a bank of freezers, it's a whole system whereby the person decides that they might want to donate, they talk to us, they complete an 'intention to donate' form that is sent back to Beaumont and RCSI and we log that on to our computer," explains Farrell, who strongly recommends that intended donors discuss their wishes with their next of kin.
"Then that patient will receive periodical communications from us and, eventually, years later when they do die, is completed by a family member."
The brain is removed within 48 hours of death - so in general funeral arrangements need not be delayed - and once the tissue is in the bank, scientists can apply to use it for research that must be scientifically and ethically approved, explains Farrell.
The donor's medical records provide important clinical context for the samples, but to protect privacy, the system is set up so scientists won't have access to the patient's personal details, he adds.
"Researchers will have only information on the disease itself, what part of the brain it is and whatever aspects of the clinical illness are necessary."
The Dublin Brain Bank is currently funded privately, by an individual in the US and by the family of Aideen Clarke from Cavan, who died of a neurodegenerative disorder.
And while the Dublin facility will accept donations from all over the State, eventually it hopes to roll out an all-Ireland network of brain banks, explains Farrell.
"You have to start somewhere," he says. "And hopefully as it gathers momentum it will allow us to go back to the disease societies or other funding agencies and say, 'this is a national resource, scientists need access to the tissue and we need to fund this on a more permanent basis'."
Meanwhile, he would like the initiative to encourage greater awareness around brain donation.
"We would hope that neurologists and psychiatrists who work with patients with degenerative diseases - Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, motor neuron disease - would begin to think about brain banking, bring the subject up early on in the course of the illness and refer the patient on to us for more information," he says.
It's also important that healthy brains go into the bank as well, he adds.
"It's relatively easy to get diseased human tissues but the big problem is the normal brains - the researchers need those tissues too.
"We would encourage people to think about it and we can discuss it with them."
• To find out more about brain donation and the Dublin Brain Bank, log on to rcsi.ie/brainbank, e-mail brainbank@rcsi.ie or leave a voice message at 01-809 4757
Brain donation: The 'greatest service anyone could give'
WHEN PAUL Magee discovered that he had motor neurone disease, he made a brave decision: to donate his brain to science after his death, in the hope that it could help scientists understand more about the fatal condition.
"They don't know what causes motor neurone disease and therefore they can't cure it at the moment," says Paul's father, sports commentator Jimmy Magee, who describes his eldest son as "a lovely man and a great friend".
Paul, a successful footballer, golfer and bowler, was diagnosed with the condition at the age of 49, when he experienced pains in his arms and started slurring his words, recalls Magee.
"He went to a specialist and within a few days they said 'this is it, you have motor neurone disease'. It was a hell of a blow."
He made the most of the little time he had left, says Magee, who is now a patron of the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association.
But the degenerative condition, which affects voluntary muscle movement, took hold within 19 months of Paul's initial diagnosis.
"Bit by bit he went. As a disease I can't imagine anything worse, because you are imprisoned in your own body," says Magee.
"The first thing to go was his arms and then his hands, which was very unfortunate. Then his legs went, his back went and his voice went, a few months before his death."
But Paul remained aware right up until the very end, and passed away last May while watching a race on which he had backed a horse, explains Magee.
"He saw the start of the race and watched it with great interest, and by the time the horse had passed the winning post, he was dead. He just closed his eyes and departed."
Tomorrow, the sports commentator will attend the launch of the new Dublin Brain Bank at Beaumont Hospital, and he reflects on Paul's generous donation of his brain to further research into MND.
"A day after he died they operated on him in Beaumont and took whatever they needed - and therefore he did some good, I hope," says Magee.
"Wouldn't it be fantastic if my son was a part of the cause of somebody's life being saved?
"I think that would be the greatest service anyone could give."