MRC Brain Banks: Joint Application to Underpin Neuroscience Research

该应用程序计划支持对影响大脑的一系列疾病的病因和潜在治疗方法的研究，其中一些已被确定为研究的重点，例如痴呆症。英国有一个已建立的脑库网络，为广泛的研究人员提供人体组织样本。人体组织样本使我们能够更好地了解这些复杂疾病的运作机制，并已经帮助开发了阿尔茨海默病和帕金森病的治疗方法。该应用程序将支持爱丁堡、伦敦、纽卡斯尔和牛津的四家脑库。这些银行都有特别感兴趣的领域，帕金森病，阿尔茨海默病和运动神经元疾病。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中的对照也是必不可少的。其中两家银行主要关注这一领域，因此该应用程序将支持疾病和正常组织样本的收集。这些样本库将支持科学研究，以高效和经济的方式提供人体组织样本，同时确保提供的样本具有研究人员所需的高质量。这些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。每个银行提供的样本的详细信息都包含在一个数据库中，可通过互联网访问。这使得研究人员可以看到哪些样品是可用的，以及如何以一种简单的方式为他们的研究请求这些样品，这将节省时间并加快进展。申请中的所有四家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人体组织样本的国家商定标准。每家银行的工作都由一个地方指导委员会监督，该委员会成员包括公众和伦理专家以及科学家和病理学家。脑库是昂贵的，但这四家银行的运营成本远低于欧洲和美国的同类银行。开发诸如阿尔茨海默病和帕金森病等复杂疾病的治疗方法的挑战是相当大的，但是脑库在这方面的应用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 the brain, some of which have been identified as priorities for research, such as dementia. The UK has a network of established Brain Banks that provide human tissue samples to a wide range of researchers. Human tissue samples have allowed a better understanding of the mechanisms operating in these complex disorders and have already aided the development 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 areas of particular interest, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and motor neurone disease. However, in addition to the collection of tissues samples from patients with brain disorders, it is also essential to collect normal tissue samples for use as controls in research. Two of the Banks have a major focus in this area, so this application will support the collection of both 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 improve their efficiency, reducing the time required to provide the samples to researchers. Details of the samples available in each of the banks are included in a database, which is accessible through the internet. This allows researchers to see what samples are available and how to request these samples for their research in an easy way that will save time and speed up progress. All four Brain Banks in this application have approval form an Ethics Committee, to ensure that their working practices meet nationally agreed standards that apply to work with human tissue samples. The work of each Bank is overseen by a local steering committee that includes members of the public and ethics experts as well as scientists and pathologists. Brain Banking is expensive, but the operating costs of these four banks are far less than their equivalents in Europe and in the USA. The challenges of developing treatments for complex diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are considerable, but the Brain Banks in this application will play an important role in underpinning the scientific research in these national priority areas.