Who can donate

Who can register to be a MSRA Brain Bank Donor?

Every person with MS in Australia above the age of 18 can register with the MSRA Brain Bank.

There is no age limit on becoming a Brain Donor and we welcome all People with MS to consent to donate post-mortem tissue, regardless of the stage or subtype of disease. Even people with mild or early stage disease should consider signing up to donate. If you are signed up and have a fatal car accident for instance, your brain and other Tissues, could still be used for MS research, and therefore help others with the disease.

Donor pre-consent is also important so that medical information can be collected ahead of time. Therefore, the sooner someone can register as a Brain Donor, the better. Pre-consent also ensures that brain donation can be arranged rapidly after death. ‘At death’ donations cannot be accepted.

Exclusion Criteria: Infectious Diseases
Tissue from people with infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B or C, HIV, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is not accepted by the MSRA Brain Bank. This is to reduce the risk to staff and scientists handling the tissue.

People without MS
Researchers need to compare MS tissues with tissue derived from people who do not have a brain disease, so-called ‘control' tissue, in order to find out what is wrong in MS brains.

Unaffected spouse, family members, or friends who do not have MS can enroll in the Using our Brains donor program at www.braindonors.org