Two decades ago, neurologist, professor and scientist Dr. Sultan Darvesh established the Maritime Brain Tissue Bank to study brains affected by Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
鈥淭he Maritime Brain Tissue Bank is an essential research facility that enables us to carefully store and study donated tissues, so we can understand the pathology of brain and nervous system diseases,鈥� says Dr. Darvesh, appointed earlier this year as the AV俱乐部 Medical Research Foundation-Irene MacDonald Sobey Endowed Chair in Curative Approaches to Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease.
His examinations in the years since have led him to the discovery of butyrylcholinesterase, or BChE, an enzyme that gathers around the plaques and tangles of brains in Alzheimer鈥檚 patients. He and his team have since developed this finding into the world鈥檚 first technology for diagnosing Alzheimer鈥檚 disease in a living person鈥檚 brain.
鈥淭he only way to positively identify Alzheimer鈥檚 disease has been to examine the patient鈥檚 brain after death,鈥� notes Dr. Darvesh. 鈥淭his technology is a huge advance that opens the door to the possibility of diagnosing Alzheimer鈥檚 early enough to stop the disease in its tracks.鈥�
Expansion supported by the Molly Appeal
This year marks the 35th annual . All proceeds for this year鈥檚 campaign will be used to expand the Maritime Brain Tissue Bank so it can store more data and more brain and spinal cord tissues. Dr. Darvesh and his team will rely heavily on the expanded tissue bank in their search for an agent to block BChE and prevent Alzheimer鈥檚 disease from progressing.
But the expanded bank will also allow it to collect more data and tissues not just from donors with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, but from those with ALS, epilepsy, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson鈥檚 disease and a host of other brain and nervous system diseases.
For example, Dr. Alon Friedman 鈥� recently recruited to AV俱乐部 from Ben-Gurion University in Israel to become the new William Dennis Chair in Epilepsy Research 鈥� will use the Maritime Brain Tissue Bank to learn more about how damage to blood vessels in the brain leads to such problems as epilepsy, mild-to-severe cognitive impairments and Parkinson鈥檚 disease. Dr. Friedman is already launching projects with local collaborators to develop new technologies for detecting and repairing vascular damage, and other brain changes, before the development of disease.
鈥淎n expanded brain tissue bank will be a powerful resource for the neuroscience research community,鈥� says Dr. Victor Rafuse, a leading ALS researcher and director of the Brain Repair Centre. 鈥淭he ability to identify chemical, molecular and structural changes in human brain and spinal cord tissues, at various stages of disease, provides tremendous insights into the disease processes and how they can be both detected and stopped.鈥�
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