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Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull: How the bank came to be Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull is the founder and Director of the Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank. He is also Distinguished Professor of Anatomy and Director of the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. In 1980, Richard arrived back in New Zealand following post-doctoral training in the USA. He’d completed his PhD and had a special interest in a group of brain structures called the basal ganglia, which are affected in Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Richard was in the process of setting up a research lab at the University of Auckland Faculty of Medical Sciences when Professor Arthur Veale came to him with a proposition. Arthur had a major interest in Huntington’s disease and was looking after all the families in New Zealand known to be affected by the disease. We knew it was caused by a single dominant gene. If it’s inherited on one side of the family, 50% of the children have a chance of getting the gene – a random 50% each time. “At that point we didn’t know what the gene was, but the families concerned really wanted to know if the diagnosis they had been given was correct. Back then diagnosis was given on clinical grounds and it was possible to confuse Huntington’s with some elements of Parkinson’s. “Families were asking Arthur to look at the brain of their mum or dad after death to see if it had the typical neuropathology of Huntington’s, which is very specific and involves the basal ganglia – my special interest. Arthur asked me to take the brains and do the work, and I agreed.” The first brain arrived in Richard’s laboratory in 1981 from an Auckland family. Fixed in formalin, it belonged to their mother. Richard teamed up with a neuropathologist and performed a number of studies on the brain, then reported back to Arthur, who then reported back to the family. “This was exciting for me, because I love the human brain. When I first saw a human brain as a third-year medical student, I was transfixed – I couldn’t believe this beautiful organ could do so much for us. It gives us our senses, intelligence, personality, sense of excitement – everything. We are what the human brain is. For a Taranaki boy who grew up on a little farm, this was transformational.” Other brains followed, and Richard developed protocols for the process. His team would always talk to the families before studies began, then provide them with a written report, including a special thank you letter because they were helping with brain research. “Without exception, the families said we could keep the brain they’d supplied and do further research on it. I recognised that this is the most valuable gift families can give to science, so it became immediately important to put protocols in place for making the best use of the brains and feeding the results back to the families involved.” Knowing more about each brain When Richard and his student team started working with the donated Huntington’s brains, they saw an amazing diversity in pathology. Different groups of cells or compartments had degenerated in different cases. “None of the textbooks referred to this variation in pathology in the basal ganglia. Subsequently, we looked at other parts of the brain and saw the same thing in the cortex. It became obvious that we needed to go back to the families to gather the clinical and symptom history of each brain donation.” “When I first saw a human brain as a third-year medical student, I was transfixed – I couldn’t believe this beautiful organ could do so muchfor us. It gives us our senses, intelligence, personality, sense of excitement – everything.” Associate Professor Lynette Tippett, who had an interest in Huntington’s disease, was engaged to retrospectively collect all the symptom profiles for the brain donors. This was performed “double-blind”, i.e. Lynette was not aware of the pathology found in the brains. Her brief was to look at the degrees of motor and mood symptoms in an unbiased scientific light. Working with Lynnette, Richard’s team found that variations in pathology mirrored the variations in the symptoms. Patients with mainly mood symptoms showed degeneration of certain parts of the basal ganglia, while patients with mainly motor symptoms showed degeneration of other compartments. And mixed symptoms showed mixed degeneration. Please do nate You can help us to make a difference by supporting the Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank. A dedicated fund has been established for you to make a donation that will help to fund the Human Brain Bank for years to come. To make a donation visit neurological.org.nz or call 0508 272 467. Headlines 7