The NeuroBioBank of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had only recently been developed, and it wasn’t widely known that many kinds of brains were urgently needed for scientific research. When Gene’s family learned of the NeuroBioBank’s work to make available high-quality, well-characterized brain tissue for scientific study, the Brain Donor Project was born to support its efforts.

Recent advances in genomic technologies have paved the way for rapid progress in defining genetic underpinnings of human disorders. These breakthroughs for complex brain disorders require high quality post-mortem brain tissue, and thus the need for these tissues has greatly intensified. That’s why the NIH created the NeuroBioBank, which established a new framework for collecting, processing, storing and distributing human brain tissue—to advance the science of brain disease.