Scientists in a dozen countries have analyzed tissue from this collection, but the genes involved in these diseases remain at large. In the last five years, the Brain Bank has provided some 70 laboratories worldwide with postmortem brain tissue at no cost to researchers. The roughly 350 specimens currently in the bank were collected by medical examiners and always with the permission of the family. Detail from 2-D electrophoresis of human brains.
Orange spots indicate disease-related variation in protein levels.
Courtesy of Dr. Nancy Johnston-Wilson One of Brain Bank's best customers is Robert H. Yolken, who runs the Stanley Neurovirology Laboratory at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Yolken's team is trying to identify disease-related changes in the brains of people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The collaborators compared the levels of hundreds of proteins in the postmortem tissue of 89 Brain Bank specimens. The analysis revealed that eight proteins in the brains of affected individuals had significantly higher or lower levels than those in the control group. More interesting than the specific findings, says Yolken, is the fact that protein differences in postmortem tissue were detected.