Mission & Ethics

Mission

The MS Australia Brain Bank aims to provide the highest quality and best characterised post-mortem human MS tissue to researchers undertaking scientific studies into the causes, treatments and potential cures for MS.

Our goals are to:

1. Increase public awareness of the importance of using human brain tissue for MS research and to recruit potential donors with MS to the MS Australia Brain Bank Donor Program.
By using high quality well characterised brain tissue for research, scientists will have a better chance of finding answers to their research questions.

2. Retrieve and properly preserve tissue within 24 hours of death.
Like other organ donations, timing is critical in order to minimise deterioration of key molecules in the brain and other tissues. The MS Australia Brain Bank collaborates with the Australian Brain Bank Network to retrieve brain and other tissues as soon as possible after being notified of the death of prospective donors.

3. Process and store MS tissue and control tissue in a way that facilitates future retrieval and use in the widest range of scientific experiments.
The MS Australia Brain Bank collects and stores tissue using various optimised protocols either directly or through partnerships with other Australian Brain Banks. Fresh frozen tissue is optimal for genomic and proteomics research studies, while formalin-fixed tissue is suited for neuropathological and histological analyses. Specific anatomical regions as well as MS affected areas are extracted for further processing.

4. Confirm pathologically the presence or absence of MS or other neurological illnesses.
Each donated brain is subjected to a thorough neuropathological examination by qualified Pathologists from the MS Australia Brain Bank or other partner Brain Banks to confirm disease diagnosis and a report can be made available upon request to the donor’s family and doctors.

5. Characterise the neuropathology of the MS affected tissue.
The MS Australia Brain Bank is unique in being able to draw on the knowledge and experience of experts in MS neuropathology to identify and characterise MS lesions as chronic, active, remyelinating and so on.

6. Promote and encourage Australian researchers to utilise post-mortem MS tissue.
Australia has a number of world class MS research centres that will utilise the MS tissues in their research programs. Tissue requests are reviewed by an independent MS Australia Brain Bank Scientific Advisory Committee who ensures that the proposed use of tissue is ethical and scientifically sound.

Ethics

The MS Australia Brain Bank operates under strict legal and ethical regulations within the NSW Human Tissue Act (1982) and the equivalent interstate legislation. Ethics approval is also granted by the Sydney South West Area Health Service (RPAH Zone) and The University of Sydney.