Taking the decision to donate your brain after you die is one of the most valuable contributions to Parkinson's research you can make.

The Summer 2008 issue of the Tissue Bank newsletter highlights the work of the centre, set up in 2002 with funding from the PDS.

The Tissue Bank, based at Imperial College, Hammersmith, is an international resource for researchers into the causes of Parkinson's. To carry out research it relies on donations of brain tissue from people with Parkinson's and also from healthy donors. To date, over 1,000 people have registered their wish to donate tissue. Tissue from the brains that have already been donated has been used in over 60 research projects across the UK and worldwide.

The newsletter explains the donation process and features an interview with Christine Bainbridge who, along with her husband and son, has made the decision to leave a lasting legacy to research by becoming donors.

Dr Kirstin Goldring, Tissue Bank Manager comments:

"While the thought of donating your brain or the brain of a recently deceased loved one for medical research may shock some people, we always treat potential donations with utmost sensitivity and minimal personal intrusion.

"With an increasingly ageing population, the numbers affected by diseases such as Parkinson's are likely to increase. Without brain tissue to study we are simply not going to be able to develop new and more effective treatments - so we are encouraging more donations."

To find out more about the work of the Tissue Bank or about donating to it, please contact Dr Kirstin Goldring, Tissue Bank Manager, on 020 7594 9732, e-mail: k.goldring@imperial.ac.uk

See our Research publications pages to download the Summer 2008 Tissue Bank newsletter