The Human Brain – The Next Biological Frontier
Guest Post -Deborah C. Mash, Ph.D. (Founder and director of the University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank™).
The brain is the next biological frontier. In the past twenty years, we have learned more about the brain than in all human history. The study of the human brain is essential for ensuring our health and wellness across the lifespan.
Brain Awareness Week is a global campaign to raise public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research. This year events are scheduled from March 14 – March 20, 2016 with exhibitions, lectures about the brain and social media campaigns. The University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank and Science Care are working together to make this year a success.
Research studies of the brain are important because the answers to questions about how the brain works and what goes wrong when the brain is affected by disease can’t come fast enough. Progress and advancement in knowledge will lead to better treatments and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and autism and the many other conditions that affect us, but only if the brain is donated after death.
The University of Miami Brain Endowment Bank™ is one of six National Institutes of Health (NIH) designated NeuroBioBanks in the US. It is also one of the largest with over 2,000 donations in our biorepository and over 500 more people who have made the pledge. Brain donation is no different than any other gift of an organ after death. But the research discoveries that can come from the science will affect millions of people. Some new research studies include;
The Brain-Gut Connection:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invested more than $1 million on a research program investigating the link between the gut microbiome and the brain. This research investigates a link between autism, depression and anxiety to variations in the microbes in the intestines.
While it seems far-fetched, direct brain-to-brain communication isn’t just the stuff of science fiction. Researchers from the University of Washington were able to repeatedly transmit signals from one person’s brain via the Internet, and used these signals to control the hand motions of another person in less than a split second!
Brain Powers Change as You Age
Known as the ever-changing-brain theory, scientists were able to prove that mental abilities don’t collectively peak and decline. Alternatively, they fluctuate across the lifespan.
Just how little we know! The great paradox of brain research is the more we learn, the less we know. Although researchers have been able to investigate the workings of specific neurons and neuropathways in the brain, we still lack the complete picture of how the brain works. This is why brain donation is so critical.
Just one donated brain supplies tissue to hundreds of medical researchers searching for new knowledge about our brain and for cures to many diseases and disorders.
Register with us to make your gift known. You will become a valuable member of our research program, belonging to a family of registered donors who understand the importance of our mission.
For more information, www.miamibrainbank.org or 1 800 UM BRAIN.
Become part of the cure. Brain Donation. Think About It.