BrainNet

In an era of rapidly growing knowledge on the biochemistry of the brain, deeper insights into the genetics of brain diseases, and a better understanding of functional anatomy through various imaging techniques, there is an increasing need for brain and tissue banking. This refers to the collection of brain tissue from well-characterized and diagnosed patients suffering from neurological and psychiatric disorders. The reasons behind this requirement are evident. While we collect more data and details about the biochemistry, molecular biology and physiology of biological processes involved in some of the notorious neurological and psychiatric diseases in cell culture systems and animal models, there is still no clear picture emerging that would explain the relationship between individual biochemical findings and the pathophysiology or clinical progression of human brain disease.

Brain-Net is a network of 8 Brain Bank centers, 5 associated satellites and 2 advisory centers in Germany. It has been funded by the German federal ministry of education and research (BMBF) since October 1999.

Brain-Net collects human brain tissues and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients suffering from various neurological and psychiatric disorders as well as from control persons according to standardized protocols. All brains are well characterized and diagnosed by standardized neuropathological protocols according to international diagnostic criteria.

Special fields of expertise in the Brain-Net are:

• Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia
  
• Parkinson’s disease and other forms of Parkinsonism
  
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
  
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
  
• Multiple sclerosis
  
• Epilepsy
  
• Brain trauma
  
• Vascular disorders
  
• Brain tumor
  
• Schizophrenia
  
• Depression
  
• Addiction
  
• Pediatric neuropathology, including sudden infant death

Aims and benefits

• Improvement of diagnosis and quality control in neurology and psychiatry
  Currently, a brain autopsy is the only way to confirm the clinical diagnosis of most neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. With a clinical misdiagnosis rate of up to 20% in these disorders, Brain-Net offers a great opportunity to contribute to the improvement of quality control in medicine and improvement of clinical diagnostic criteria.
• Acquisition and distribution of brain samples for basic brain research
  There are no suitable animal models for most neurological and psychiatric disorders. Therefore, scientists investigating these disorders depend on the availability of well-characterized human tissue.

Support of basic research

Brain-Net provides well-characterized tissue specimens from patients with various neurological or psychiatric disorders, as well as from control patients, to scientific research groups for basic brain research. Applicants must send a written request to the Brain-Net Office, describing the planned project, the type and quantity of samples required and the technical experience of the requesting research group. The decision by Brain-Net to support a particular project is made by the Internal Advisory Board. Since the project started, we have received 21 tissue requests from national and international research groups working on scientific projects. So far, we have been able to supply 452 specimens to 11 projects. Several articles have been published in international scientific journals as an outcome of research using these specimens.

Press releases

Further Information: www.brain-net.net