The banks store post-mortem brain and central nervous system (CNS) tissue donated by the public for diagnosis and research into disorders. Advances in understanding genetics and many of the molecules that define brain function mean that more and more research questions can be answered from human brain tissue.

The UK Brain Banks Network supplies tissue samples to academic and industry researchers in the UK and abroad.

The banks work together to agree common standards of operation and to harmonise protocols for consent, tissue handling and storage, quality indicators and the application process for access to tissue samples.

Research IT manages the IT needs of the network, and have developed a web based system for managing data and co-ordinating tissue requests. The data includes genomics data provided by collaborating research studies. We also provide a system for sharing digitised microscope slides for the International Society of Neurology.

Research IT provides support for the third-party IT systems used by the brain banks, including “RFTrackIT” – a radio frequency barcoding system for keeping track of tissue samples, and the “Brains for Dementia Research Comprehensive Assessment Database”, a web based system for storing clinical assessments of living participants so their clinical and pathology data can be combined after death.