Project Overview

The Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank (DBCBB; douglasbrainbank.ca), based at the Douglas Research Centre (McGill University affiliate), has become one of the most important brain banks in the world. Founded in 1980, the DBCBB currently houses and manages over 3,600 brains, as well as a large relational database containing demographic, clinical and developmental histories from the donors. The DBCBB is one of the rare brain banks in North America to collect brains from people who suffered from different neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other dementias, as well as diverse mental disorders, including schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, substance use disorders, obtained from individuals who died or did not die by suicide (through a special collaboration with the Quebec Coroner’s Office). The DBCBB is internationally recognized, and thus receives tissue requests from a large number of neuroscientists from Canada and abroad. Requests for tissues come from leading international laboratories focusing on neurobiological processes as diverse as the normal expression of brain genes, histological changes associated with brain aneurysms, epigenetics processes associated with chronic cocaine use, and the neurobiological consequences of early-life adversity, to name just a few. More than 2,000 brain samples are prepared and sent to 30-50 researchers each year. Samples obtained from the DBCBB have been essential to several scientific breakthroughs reported in studies published in high-impact journals.

Principal Investigator

Gustavo Turecki , Douglas Hospital Research Centre

Team Members

Caroline Menard, Université Laval

Corina Nagy, Centre de recherche de l’hôpital Douglas/Douglas Hospital Research Centre

Lena Palaniyappan, London Health Sciences Centre

Pedro Rosa-Neto, Douglas Mental Health University Institute

Mark Bathe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tallie Z. Baram, University of California

Tadafumi Kato, Juntendo University

Darrell Mousseau, University of Saskatchewan

Juan Nácher, Universitat de València

Eric J. Nestler, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Marcella Rietschel, Central Institute of Mental Health

Scott J. Russo, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Michal Ślęzak, Polish Center for Technology Development

Xin-Hong Zhu, South China University of Technology

Michael Ziller, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry

Partners and Donors

Douglas Research Centre

Douglas Foundation