In France, there is a brain bank, the Neuro-CEB biobank, located on the site of the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.
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On the thermostats of the freezers of the Neuro-CEB biobank, the temperature is displayed: – 80 degrees. Inside, brain samples that will be made available to researchers working on neurodegenerative diseases.
Sabrina Leclère, manager of the biobank receives the research projects. “It’s repetitive she explains, because many make several requests to us. Between 25 and 30 research projects are proposed to us each year, which represents 3,000 to 4,000 samples transferred per year. We still have 30,000 samples in the freezers available for research.”
If the ultimate objective is obviously to find treatments, the functioning of the brain still remains very mysterious for the moment. “Research is progressingunderlines Sabrina Leclere. Lots of little things are found in all illnesses, hoping that they may one day lead to a cure. But it is true that these are quite long and complex investigations. But it is progressing: there are many researchers who are publishing thanks to these samples.”
Researchers need as many samples from sick people as from non-sick people.
Marie-Claire Artaud-Botté, coordinator at the Neuro-CEB biobankfranceinfo
Currently, 750 brains are stored in the biobank. Some three thousand people are also on the donor list. Among them, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patients who sign consent for a sample post mortem. However, it is more difficult to recover so-called “healthy” brains, without which research does not progress, insists Marie-Claire Artaud-Botté, the coordinator. “This is essential ! When they ask us for five cases of Parkinson’s disease, they will ask us opposite for five cases of witnesses. Brain disease research needs the human brain. There is no animal model or model in vitro that can represent the entire brain.” The samples stored in the biobank can be used for research for more than ten years.
On the occasion of Brain Week, hundreds of events are organized throughout France by the Society for Neuroscience to make the general public aware of the importance of research on Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.