[Collaboration between Fukushimura Brain Bank,based in a private geriatric hospital and a national/international...

Fukushimura Brain Bank (FBB) was established in 1994, and to date, has accumulated 477 fresh frozen brain tissue samples. Our brain bank is based in Choju Medical Institute, Fukushimura Hospital, Toyohashi in Japan. At the time of its foundation, the institute could not establish working relationships with clinicopathological investigators and others engaged in basic neuroscience research. At this stage, we received the assistance of Yokohama City University in setting up standards for neuropathological diagnosis as well as the aid of Chiba University in establishing a method for Vancouver style snap-frozen sampling of brain tissue. However, both systems require considerable manpower and time. We now plan to introduce several improvements in these systems. At its inception, the Brain Bank operated without financial support from grants or foundation funding and was managed only as a hospital expense. However, since 1998, we have collaborated with researchers from several institutes, and the results of our labors have been presented at congresses, in journal publications and in foundation reports. In 2004, we obtained the status required to apply for a grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. Fukushimura Hospital is a geriatric institution that specializes in dementia. There are no other hospitals or nursing homes in the Toyohashi area that specialize in this field. Half of our patients have Alzheimer's disease,and a number of them have enormous plaques and huge neurofibrillary tangles patient for over 10 years. In general,private geriatric hospitals that care for such patients with severe AD lack the systems required for performing autopsies. Research carried out with animal models are not comparable with neuropathological and biochemical investigations using human tissues,and in terms of the quality,the range and size of our collection at FBB is unique. In the future,we intend to expand our network in order to share samples of interest,and to optimize the network by establishing similar sampling protocols and diagnostic standards. It is with great pleasure that we at the FBB look forward to our collaboration with the Comprehensive Brain Science.