The Development of Brain Banks in the UK c.1970–c.2010 : the transcript of a Witness Seminar held by the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group, Queen Mary University of London, on 12 November 2013 / edited by C Overy and E M Tansey.

This Witness Seminar on the development of brain banks in the UK, chaired by Professor Hugh Perry, included several neuropathologists, neuroscientists, and representatives of individual brain banks and the MRC’s UK Brain Bank Network. Discussions covered the development of early brain collections and the origins of more formal brain banking; the creation, maintenance and work of brain banks dedicated to specific diseases and neurological conditions; and the establishment in 2009 of the MRC’s UK Brain Bank Network to coordinate the provision of brain tissue for medical research. Other debates and reminiscences included much discussion on the ethics of obtaining post-mortem brains and issues about the recruitment of donors, and the public perception of brain banks and research using human brain tissue.