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About the Queen Square Brain Bank
The Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders (QSBB) holds a unique archive of brains and tissue donated by individuals with neurodegenerative disease and neurologically normal controls. It specialises in parkinsonian movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy andholds the national collection of brains donated by individuals with progressive supranuclear palsy. The collection has been developed to include donated brains from prospectively studied people with familial dementias, in collaboration with the Dementia Research Centre at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. The QSBB also banks brains donated by people with dystonia.
The team at QSBB aim to provide the highest-possible quality of brain tissue for neuropathological studies and for scientific research in the UK and worldwide. The large collection of tissue is supported by good clinical documentation and all material is fully evaluated by QSBB’s neuropathologists. Protocols for banking and research have ethics committee approval and tissue is stored under a licence from the Human Tissue Authority (Licence No 12198). Tissue is donated from registered prospective donors and, along with medical records, is stored and released in accordance with the GDPR.
Please visit our donor scheme site for information about joining the tissue donor scheme.
The QSBB depends almost entirely on charitable benefactions for its survival. Brain banking is supported by UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and the Reta Lila Weston Institute of Neurological Studies. QSBB is a member of the MRC UK Brain Banks Network.
Request for Tissue
The QSBB holds a large archive of brain tissue, sufficient to support statistically valid case-control studies. Our material is stored as formalin-fixed/wax embedded blocks and the majority of cases also have flash frozen samples. Flash-frozen material has excellent histological preservation and is suitable for in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Tissue can be provided as slide-mounted sections (paraffin embedded or frozen) or as small frozen blocks for neurochemistry or DNA and RNA analysis. Case controls are matched for age, sex and post-mortem delay and are supplied blind. Clinical data relating to the tissue supplied is made available on an anonymised basis.
Please see Request for tissue page for further information.
Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders
UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
1 Wakefield Street
London WC1N 1PJ
Tel: +44 (0)20 7837 8370
Email: qsbbmtas@ucl.ac.uk