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Headlines 19 30 YEARS ON The Best Little Brain Bank in the World The Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank celebrates its 30th anniversary this year – but its genesis was decades in the making. I ts founder and co-director, Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull, grew up on a small dairy farm in rural Taranaki. In 1966, as a third-year student at Otago Medical School, Sir Richard saw the human brain for the first time and was fascinated by its complexity. He interrupted his medical studies to conduct a year of experimental research on the brain and became the first PhD graduate in neuroscience at the University of Auckland Medical School. He developed a special interest in basal ganglia, which are affected in Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, and established his own experimental rat brain research laboratory in the Department of Anatomy at Auckland Medical School. A decade of discovery about the human brain followed. In 1980, Professor Arthur Veale – an international figure in genetics – approached him about studying brains from families affected by Huntington’s. The first brain arrived, fixed in formalin. Other brains followed and protocols were established, including involving the families in the process and, later, gathering the history of each brain donation. Never before had brain tissue been collected along with a detailed profile of symptoms taken from talking directly with the families. By the early 1990s, the team had created a human brain bank that was unique in New Zealand, and perhaps the world. It received its first funding from the Neurological Foundation in 1994. Our Head of Research, Dr Sarah Schonberger, says, “We support the Brain Bank because it aligns so brilliantly with the Foundation’s purpose. It covers both research and education and is a link between clinicians, scientists and people with the lived conditions. The Brain Bank has always been at the forefront of new techniques and technologies so that we gain the most from this precious resource.” More than 240 people attended a very special event in July. Sir Richard, co-director Professor Maurice Curtis, concussion researcher Dr Helen Murray, and guest Lillian Hanly, whose artist grandfather had Huntington’s disease, took part in a panel discussion led by renowned journalist Mark Crysell (pictured above). The neuroscientists shared incredible stories from the past and present and inspired the audience as they gazed far into the future. You can watch the 30th anniversary event here https://youtu.be/DccCdDbIfic. “The human brain is the last frontier, and to this day, I still find it wonderfully challenging and exciting.” Sir Richard Faull