Department of Neuropathology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
Indian J Pathol Microbiol. 2022 May;65(Supplement):S218-S225. doi: 10.4103/ijpm.ijpm_113_22.
Biobanks are set to become the norm. The explosion of new and powerful technologies like genomics and other multiomics has catapulted research from individual laboratories to multi-institutional and international partners. Today, with increasing life span, and the rising incidence of brain diseases, Brain Banks have become an invaluable source for unravelling the pathogenesis of several brain disorders, and develop effective therapies. The article briefly reviews the evolution of brain banking, rise of global networks, with a brief overview of steps involved from donor recruitment, protocols of processing, storage, annotation, and tissue distribution. The ethics of biobanking is one of the most controversial issues in bioethics, the key issues being consent, confidentiality, and commercialisation. Regulatory authorities in different countries and in India, the Indian Council of Medical Research has taken a lead to formulate new ethical guidelines for research involving human participants protecting rights, and well-being of research participants. Although brain banks have been established in the 1960s, in India, the first Brain Bank was established in 1995 at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bengaluru. Now a network with two more Brain banks is being established in the country. The challenges and benefits of establishing the first Brain Bank as a National Research Facility in India is shared. For optimising available resources and promote brain banking, it is essential for medical professionals, and the public to perceive the crucial advantage in conversion of biological waste into invaluable resources for neuroscience. This will be the greatest "gift of hope" that we can offer for the future generations to overcome hitherto untreatable disorders such as dementias.
生物银行将成为常态。基因组学和其他多组学等新技术的爆炸式发展，将研究从单个实验室推向了多机构和国际合作。如今，随着寿命的延长和脑部疾病发病率的上升，脑库已成为揭示多种脑部疾病发病机制和开发有效疗法的宝贵资源。本文简要回顾了脑库的发展演变、全球网络的兴起，并概述了从招募捐赠者、处理方案、存储、注释到组织分配的各个步骤。生物银行的伦理问题是生物伦理学中最具争议的问题之一，关键问题是同意、保密和商业化。不同国家和印度的监管机构，印度医学研究理事会已率先制定了涉及人类参与者的研究的新伦理准则，以保护研究参与者的权利和福祉。虽然脑库早在 20 世纪 60 年代就已建立，但在印度，第一个脑库于 1995 年在班加罗尔的国家心理健康和神经科学研究所建立。现在，该国正在建立另外两个脑库网络。本文分享了在印度建立国家研究机构的第一个脑库所面临的挑战和益处。为了优化现有资源并促进脑库发展，医疗专业人员和公众必须认识到将生物废物转化为神经科学宝贵资源的关键优势。这将是我们为未来几代人提供的最大的“希望之礼”，以克服迄今无法治疗的疾病，如痴呆症。
