"Living Donor" Tissues Propel Brain Research

Описание: The study of brain tissue from living donors – patients who continue to live after their donation – has prompted a paradigm shift in the study of the human brain. The brain, a unique organ, is a reservoir of personal memories and emotions as well as other precious and private data that defines what it is to be human. The study of living tissue can advance understanding of neurological anatomy and diseases, as well as the brain’s higher-level functions. Already, living donor brain tissues have provided greater cellular resolution than traditional brain-exploring methods, such as MRI, opening the door to the study of the brain as a cellular organ, not dissimilar from the immune system. Importantly, living tissues have shown how the human brain is different from the brains of other animals, including the mouse brain often used to inform human research questions. Using brain tissue from patients with epilepsy or undergoing brain tumor biopsies, Ed Lein found key differences between human and mouse brains that highlight the complexity of the human nervous system. He will present his newest findings and discuss how they may inform the use of animal systems that model the human nervous system, as well as the future of brain research. Karen Rommelfanger will present a series of ethical questions neuroscientists must incorporate into research that uses live brain tissue such as a living patient’s consent and East-West cultural frameworks of the human brain. To answer these questions, Rommelfanger suggests, scientists should begin
collecting data from families of patients undergoing live brain tissue extraction to document how they would like the tissues to be used. Neuroscience is already making headway incorporating neuroethics into research, but policymakers and industry leaders too must join this effort and move beyond the belief that compliance and regulatory “checkboxes” are proxies for ethics. A third speaker, focused on a different research facet, is expected to join this briefing.

Ed Lein, director of Human Cell Types Program at Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, Wash.
Living Tissue Donations Reveal New Insights into the Brain's Cellular Makeup

Karen Rommelfanger, director of neuroethics program and professor of neurology, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.
How Should Ethics Guide Studies of the Human Brain?