ONE of Britain’s largest human brain banks is suffering from a shortage of organs and is appealing for more donors to help them find a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease.
The South West Brain Bank has 800 brains in store which have been donated by people who had suffered with Alzheimer’s. But doctors say they need “normal” brains to develop drugs which could lead to a cure for dementia, which affects 700,000 people in the UK, a figure that is expected to double in the next decade.
Prof Seth Love and his team, the Bristol Dementia Research Group, have been awarded £340,000 from the Alzheimer’s Research Trust. Along with money from local charity BRACE the team will buy a new microscope with which to look at healthy and diseased brain tissue.
Donations to the brain bank, which is based in Frenchay Hospital, in Bristol, are accepted from people across the country.