BACKGROUND: Brain Bank started in 1960's in the United States and United Kingdom as a basic infrastructure for human neuroscience research. In Japan, institutional collections through autopsy formed major repository of postmortem brains represented by Brain Research Institute, Niigata University. In Japan, brain bank project with brain donation program officially started in 2001 by the Brain Bank for Aging Research (BBAR) in Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology (TMGHIG) and Psychiatric Brain Bank in Fukushima College of Medicine, followed by Research Resource Network in National Center for Neurology and Psychiatry (NCNP).
METHODS: One of the goal of Japanese Society of Neuropathology (JSNP) is to establish Japanese brain bank network (Japan Brain Net). The Brain Bank Committee (BBC) is its task force. In 2010, four members of BBC formed Japanese Brain Bank Network for Neuroscience Research (JBBNNR), which received five- year funding from Comprehensive Brain Science Network, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. The quality standard of JBBNNR is as follows: 1. brain bank is approved by IRB and received institutional consensus; 2. brain bank takes care of brain donation program and clinically follows the brain donors; and 3. brain bank resource is quality controlled and is open to researchers.
RESULTS: In 2011, BBAR also received funding from National Center for Geriatric and Gerontology, and in 2013, established a new facility consisting of 21 deep freezers with one for back up of National Surveillance of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
CONCLUSION: JBBNNR is the first step to Japan Brain Net, in collaboration with RRNNP.