There’s an Indian death euphemism I’ve been dwelling on since the last time I saw my grandmother: “To be no more.” But even after she dies, my grandmother’s brain will, in a way, live on, joining the thousands of Americans who donate each year. After undergoing an autopsy, her brain’s tissue will be stored and researched. It may travel to banks with specialized grants and niche experts. Someone will look at her under a microscope.

The more I thought about the trajectory of my grandmother’s life, the more the line between brain and grandmother blurred. What will come of her after life? That question led me to the place where her brain will end up.

On a sunny morning in January, I arrived at the University of Miami’s Brain Endowment Bank with the eagerness and anxiety of a new mother about to inspect a potential day-care facility. The bank is one of six brain and tissue biorepositories funded by the National Institutes of Health’s NeuroBioBank, or NBB. These biorepositories use donated tissue to research neurological and psychiatric diseases. (Outside of the NIH’s network, there are dozens of other banks worldwide.)

Each donated brain has a different journey. All brains undergo examination and are weighed; cell loss from Alzheimer’s can shrink the brain. Some donors’ bodies are returned to their families after autopsy; others donate all their organs and tissue. In either case, families receive a pathology report, and brains are stored at about negative 112 degrees Fahrenheit for research on site or at another lab. It costs banks roughly $10,000 per year to store a brain, according to Deborah Mash, the Brain Endowment Bank’s founder and director.

One brain can provide hundreds of qualified scientists with tissue, Mash said. She cites an example of the bank’s involvement in pioneering research on the link between a dietary neurotoxin and Alzheimer’s disease. The NBB’s website lists discoveries related to autism, depression, and epilepsy, among others, that were made thanks to the use of human-brain tissue.

When we met, Mash reminisced about launching the Brain Endowment Bank in 1987 with “$5,000 and a freezer.” But its capacity and technology rapidly advanced: “More has been learned about the human brain in the past 20 years than throughout all of human history,” she said. This progress is the result of both political and cultural shifts. In 2013, President Obama announced the $100 million BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative. The initiative, which is funded in part by private institutions and foundations, continues to get boosts from Congress. Curiosity about the brain has also permeated the arts world. The American Museum of Natural History’s 2010 exhibition Brain: The Inside Story continues to travel the country.