Quantitative Brain Biology Institute
Research
Brain QUANT seeks financial support for:
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- training the next generation of brain scientists
- discovering new treatments for brain diseases
- pilot studies
- internships
- creating the human brain cell atlas
- lectures and seminars
- maintaining brain tissue and databases
- supporting collaborations
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Be a Lifeline for Tomorrow
— Donate Today:​
1. Human Neurogenesis Gift Fund: Targeting Brain Regeneration for Treating Brain Aging and Diseases​
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2. Neurobiology of Major Depression and Suicide Fund: Finding New Treatments For Psychiatric Diseases
Research Support and Seed Grants
Brain QUANT faculty reviews new proposed studies submitted by colleagues and facilitates the collaborative use of specimens from the collection. Both pilot projects and full research studies are considered. Inquiries are initiated by verbal or written communication with a member of the faculty. Advice can be sought through the Postmortem Help Desk. A submitted specific research plan is reviewed, usually at the next meeting of the research committee. The review procedure is not intended to redesign a grant application; it is better viewed as a consultation to determine whether and how the use of human tissue can best serve the investigator’s research aims. Brain QUANT faculty meets monthly and coordinate brain tissue needs for all research projects, optimizing allocation of tissue to the different studies. If funds will be available, Brain QUANT will have an annual call for proposal for pilot studies that have great potential of resulting in NIH grant proposals.
Internships
Brain QUANT is committed to training. Trainees from the following programs and others have been able to join the laboratories of the faculty and receive training on postmortem human brain research: Barnard College, Columbia College, MS and PhD programs, College of P&S, Fu Foundation School of Engineering & Applied Science, T32 Postdoctoral fellowships, Amgen Scholars Program, Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Leadership Alliance Summer Research Program for underrepresented minorities. The laboratories of the faculty accepting students provide mentorship, research funds, and space.
Human Brain Atlas
Brain QUANT faculty is committed to sharing a brain cell atlas and a brain library with the scientific community. The goal is to familiarize researchers with human brain anatomy and neuropathology, for general orientation, and to enable users to design human brain studies. Stained slides are available from a wide range of clinically- and pathologically diagnosed brain diseases, including psychiatric and neurodegenerative disease. Additionally, we have collected cases with movement disorders, cerebrovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, and neoplasms. Scanned images of the slides are made available on a publicly accessible Internet server. Registered users can add comments and pose questions.
Brain Collection
We have collected over 2,000 autopsy brains, and detailed clinical histories. The brain collection is ongoing and includes brains from subjects will every major psychiatric diagnosis including mood disorders, psychoses, drug and alcohol use disorders, and we have collected data on suicide death, early life and more recent adversity exposure, global functioning level, aggression score, and sociodemographic data. We have a distribution of age from adolescence into the 90s, males and females, and subjects from different ancestries. We have information of treatment history and toxicology allowing for studying the effects of drugs and medications. A DSM-validated psychological autopsy interview with next of kin and structured review of medical records gather an unprecedented amount of clinical and developmental information about each person, regardless of the presence of a suspected psychiatric history. Brains undergo neuropathologic examination, for determining the presence of any neurodegenerative disease. We flash freeze one hemisphere and fix the other. Frozen specimens are housed in ultralow temperature (-80C) freezers that are backed up by liquid carbon dioxide in case of freezer failure and monitored continuously by an alarm system.