Center for Human Brain Discovery

The Center for Human Brain Discovery at Yale School of Medicine is a vital and open resource that supports research into the causes of and treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, as well as normal aging, with the goal of procuring and archiving high-quality brain tissue specimens, paired with blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and non-central nervous system tissues, such as muscle, fibroblasts, etc., as well as deep patient health records data.

The Center’s Brain and Tissue Biorepository acquires tissues through a transparent and open-ended consent. This process ensures that donors understand how banked specimens may be used for current and future research and that scientists can use the materials for a wide array of current genomic, proteomic, and single-cell resolution experiments as well as future experimental approaches.

The Center makes tissue samples and biological information available to qualified researchers via a secure, robust, and purpose-built bidirectional data portal that integrates a full range of patient data from electronic health records and other sources. The bidirectional data portal also incorporates experimental information from brain researchers, thus facilitating data sharing and collaborations between internal and external investigators. Thus, the Center for Human Brain Discovery enables cross-cutting and impactful investigation across the neurosciences at Yale and nationwide.

• The Center collaborates with the Generations Project, which seeks to identify genetic variants in individuals from across the state of Connecticut, to encourage brain donations from patients with a family history of dementia or from those with genetic predisposition to neurodegenerative diseases as well as from normal individuals (controls)
• The Center supports a robust education and interdisciplinary training, and outreach program, with the goal of training a diverse group of professionals in neurodegenerative disease research
• The Center pays for all expenses involved with the brain autopsy and donation, including transportation to and from the donation site