dementia and caregiving: Brain Bank (Human Brain Tissue Repository) in Bangalore, the only one in India, wow!

My mother has dementia, and to me, therefore, research on dementia and other such brain disorders is priority. In this context, I was very glad to attend a presentation given by Dr. Shankar of NIMHANS, Bangalore, regarding brain banks and their relevance and necessity for researchers.

Dr. Shankar made an impassioned plea for more donors for brains, and gave us a lot of data that convinced me not just to sign up for my mother's brain and mine, but also add this page here in the hope that others will see it and join up.

Did you know, for example, how absolutely necessary human brain tissue is to researchers in this area? Apparently, when we humans went a step ahead in our brains compared to other mammals, and indeed other primates, we also became unique in the way our brain pathology evolved. So, while most research in medical fields manages to make good headway using rats and monkeys, this is not true about brain-related research. If we want folks in the labs to give us stuff that treats and cures brain disorders, or even find out why something happens the way it does in our brains, we have to give them brains to study. We give them the brains after we die, but we have to sign up before, just as it happens in eye donation.

Interested enough to find out more or sign up?

It's very simple if you are in Bangalore. Contact Dr. Shankar or his team and sign up as a brain donor (contact details below). Contact them for a more detailed and authentic version.

If you are not in Bangalore, that's a problem, at least right now, because the only Brain Bank in India is the one in Bangalore. So you need to get more proactive, maybe lobby around with other interested persons and find pathologists who will be able to establish such a bank. Hard work, sure, but maybe you'll be glad of it when your own brain starts acting funny, if you get that unfortunate.

Okay, here's data to get you started on thinking about this.

  • The brain is removed from the donor after death (complete death, as in eye donation, not brain-death as in kidney, heart and liver donation). This removal is done from the donor's body within 48 hours of death (preferably 6 hours), and the body must be kept in a freezer after death to be usable for such donation. Don't let the freezer bit alarm you, because it's no big deal. All hospitals have freezers, and are quite used to keeping bodies--they do it to keep bodies when waiting for children to arrive from other cities/ countries for last rites. Happens all the time.

  • Once the donor dies and the next-of-kin or authorized person contacts the brain bank (after the death is certified by the attending doctor), the brain bank takes the body to its premises where a pathologist will make an incision in the skull, remove the brain, and then stitch back the skin so that the body can be returned and viewed/ cremated/ buried as the relatives want. Apparent disfigurement is minimal, no more than a scar. The body is likely to be back with you within 6 hours, give or take a bit thanks to traffic jams.

  • There! That finishes your role. Now the brain bank people will study the brain. They will share the results with you, and also prepare slides that will be made available to researchers free of charge and can be used for up to five years!

  • Just in case you were wondering, a donated brain can only be used for research. It is not transplantable (not as per the current state on science). What you get from this transaction is the satisfaction of having contributed a resource (a very valuable one) to science. No money is involved--you spend none, and you get none.

  • And one more thing. Dr. Shankar informed us that major religions (Hinduism, Christianity-Catholic and Protestant, Islam, Buddhism) allow, and often support such donation. Some others, like Jehovah's Witnesses don't, but that's more the exception than the rule.

So, what next? Just contact Dr. Shankar or his team as given below. They are available 24 hours, and they are passionate about this. Remember, they need all types of brains, not just brains of those with problems. They need normal brains to compare with, so enroll yourself and relatives and anyone who is willing. There is an application and consent format and they will help you with it. Once you get your brain donor card, make sure you carry it along in your wallet, just as you already probably do for your eye donor card.

And do spread the word around. It's a worthy cause.

The contact details are:

Contact persons:
Dr. Shankar: shankar@nimhans.kar.nic.in
Dr. Anita: amahadevan@nimhans.kar.nic.in

Address:
Human Brain Tissue Repository
Dept of Neuropathology
NIMHANS
Hosur Road
Bangalore, INDIA 560029