The brain bank receives brain and spinal cord donations from individuals enrolled during life in one of its nine affiliated brain donor programs. Donors must live in New South Wales and be older than 18 years. The bank collects tissue from donors with sporadic and familial forms of a number of disorders, including Alzheimer’s, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s, frontotemporal dementia, multiple system atrophy, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal syndrome, Huntington’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), as well as from individuals with mild cognitive impairment and healthy donors. Donors with lookalike or related disorders may also be eligible. 

For the majority of cases, one hemisphere is fixed in formalin for cellular and histological analysis and the other is frozen. The bank also takes standardized blocks from every case for tissue characterisation and classification. Tissues can be accessed by accredited researchers for ethically approved research studies. All applications are reviewed by the independent scientific review committee of the NSWBB and assessed on feasibility and scientific merit.