The Brown Brain Tissue Resource Center (BTRC) was established in 1993 to serve all of Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts. Since its inception, the Brown BTRC has facilitated research into the relationship between Alzheimer's Disease and other brain disorders such as strokes and mental illnesses. At this time, the majority of investigators that utilize the Brown BTRC are affiliated with the memory disorders clinics at the teaching hospitals of the Brown Medical School. Efforts are underway to educate other area investigators as well as the public about the importance of brain donation and its impact on medical research. Our community is beginning to respond, resulting in an increase in donations per month and a wider range of donor categories, that now includes Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson's Disease as well as Alzheimer’s Disease cases.

The Brown BTRC draws upon the collective expertise of a variety of doctors—mostly neurologists--engaged in the research of diseases of the central nervous system. The success of this facility depends on the enthusiastic participation of the Brown University affiliated physicians and scientific investigators as well as the highly trained laboratory technologists.

Most donations have been obtained from Alzheimer’s patients. Approximately 20% are from normal controls, many of whom had close relatives with Alzheimer’s. The donation rate is approximately 2-3 cases per month, but as mentioned, this rate is rising due to our outreach campaign. About 400 brains have been donated as of November, 2002. The Brown BTRC also supports a collection of approximately 120 brain tumor cases that were harvested from patients who underwent surgery and who were enrolled in a clinical trial for the development of new treatments for brain cancer: New Approaches to Brain Tumor Therapy national consortium ( NABTT).

An important goal here is to develop not only a facility that receives a variety of cases, but to build a strong set of controls; controls are brains from normal or non-disease individuals, a vital resource for distinguishing normal from abnormal processes.

Most of the investigators that use the Brown BTRC are affiliated with Brown Medical School. However, the facility collaborates with scientists around the country and from all over the world to maintain standards and learn new methods.

Brown BTRC director, Dr. Ed Stopa, draws on the expertise of established brain donor programs, such as the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center based at McLean Hospital. The Brown BTRC also benefits from the combined knowledge and experience of many other facilities through Dr. Stopa's regular participation in National Institute of Health affiliated meetings and a yearly International Workshop.