MRC Brain Banks: Joint Application to Underpin Neuroscience Research

这项应用计划支持对一系列影响大脑的疾病的原因和潜在治疗方法的研究，其中一些已被确定为研究的优先事项，如痴呆症。英国有一个成熟的脑库网络，为范围广泛的研究人员提供人体组织样本。人体组织样本使人们更好地了解了这些复杂疾病的机制，并已经帮助开发了阿尔茨海默病和帕金森氏病的治疗方法。这一应用程序将支持爱丁堡、伦敦、纽卡斯尔和牛津的四个脑库。这些银行各自都有特别感兴趣的领域，帕金森氏症、阿尔茨海默氏症和运动神经元疾病。然而，除了收集脑部疾病患者的组织样本外，收集正常组织样本作为研究的对照也是必不可少的。其中两家银行主要关注这一领域，因此这项应用将支持疾病和正常组织样本的收集。银行将通过以高效和成本效益的方式提供人体组织样本来支持科学研究，同时确保提供的样本具有研究人员所需的高质量。银行一直在努力提高效率，减少向研究人员提供样本所需的时间。每家银行可获得的样本的详细信息都包括在一个数据库中，该数据库可通过互联网访问。这使得研究人员可以查看哪些样本可用，以及如何以一种简单的方式为他们的研究请求这些样本，这将节省时间并加快进度。这项申请的所有四个脑库都获得了伦理委员会的批准，以确保他们的工作实践符合适用于处理人类组织样本的国家商定标准。每个银行的工作都由一个地方指导委员会监督，委员会成员包括公众和伦理专家以及科学家和病理学家。Brain Banking的成本很高，但这四家银行的运营成本远远低于欧洲和美国的同类银行。开发阿尔茨海默病和帕金森病等复杂疾病的治疗方法面临着相当大的挑战，但这一应用中的Brain Bank将在支持这些国家优先领域的科学研究方面发挥重要作用。

This application plans to support research into the causes and potential treatment of a range of diseases affecting thebrain, some of which have been identified as priorities for research, such as dementia. The UK has a network ofestablished Brain Banks that provide human tissue samples to a wide range of researchers. Human tissue samples haveallowed a better understanding of the mechanisms operating in these complex disorders and have already aided thedevelopment of treatments for Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.This application will support four Brain Banks in Edinburgh, London, Newcastle and Oxford. These banks each have areasof particular interest, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and motor neurone disease. However, in addition to thecollection of tissues samples from patients with brain disorders, it is also essential to collect normal tissue samples for useas controls in research. Two of the Banks have a major focus in this area, so this application will support the collection ofboth disease and normal tissue samples.The banks will support scientific research by providing human tissue samples in an efficient and cost effective manner,while ensuring the samples provided are of the high quality required by researchers. The banks have worked to improvetheir efficiency, reducing the time required to provide the samples to researchers. Details of the samples available in eachof the banks are included in a database, which is accessible through the internet. This allows researchers to see whatsamples are available and how to request these samples for their research in an easy way that will save time and speed upprogress.All four Brain Banks in this application have approval form an Ethics Committee, to ensure that their working practices meetnationally agreed standards that apply to work with human tissue samples. The work of each Bank is overseen by a localsteering committee that includes members of the public and ethics experts as well as scientists and pathologists. BrainBanking is expensive, but the operating costs of these four banks are far less than their equivalents in Europe and in theUSA.The challenges of developing treatments for complex diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease areconsiderable, but the Brain Banks in this application will play an important role in underpinning the scientific research in these national priority areas.