Advances in psychiatry research often focus on new therapies and treatment, with discoveries made through years of laboratory research and clinical trials. Less well known is an aspect of psychiatry research that depends on individuals donating their remains to medical research. 

Neuroscience researchers at the University of Kansas and elsewhere rely on human organ donors in order to advance molecular genetic research. 

The Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Brain Bank, established at the University of Kansas Medical Center over a decade ago by retired faculty member Larry Carver, M.D., and currently managed by Waheeda Hossain, M.D., MPH, facilitates psychiatric translational research through access to donated brains.

“To me, the brain’s the most interesting organ to study,” Olivia Veatch, Ph.D., M.S., assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, said. “It's the most complex and the least is known about it.” 

Growing mental health research 

Access to the brain bank allows faculty like Veatch, who specializes in computational genomics research, to develop research that informs treatment for brain disorders.

“The more I worked in this field [of brain disorder research], the more I realized this is an area of research that’s kind of flown under the radar,” Veatch said. “There are all these individuals who have mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, and we don’t know much about the underlying biology.” 

Through the brain bank and with support from the Kansas Institute for Precision Medicine, Veatch has studied the genetics of sleep disruption as a core feature of schizophrenia, a mental disorder that affects one’s thought processes and emotional responsiveness, among other symptoms. Veatch worked with Hossain, Mihaela Sardiu, Ph.D., Michael Washburn, Ph.D., and Michaella Rekowski, Ph.D., in the Proteomics Core and Clark Bloomer, B.S., in the Genome Sequencing Facility at KU Medical Center, to analyze  DNA, RNA and protein samples from ten specimen — including five from donors with schizophrenia and five from control individuals — focusing on regions of the brain known to regulate sleep and wake patterns. Veatch’s goal is to better understand genetic factors that may relate to functional changes in healthy brain patterning, which happens during sleep. 

“It's not necessarily that you're treating schizophrenia directly, but in that treating a sleep problem can help improve neurodevelopment so that the brain's patterning appropriately,” Veatch said. “That could ultimately alleviate severity of other symptoms in the long run.” 

Building the brain bank 

Proximity to a local brain bank is “a very precious thing,” said Hossain, a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.  

A molecular geneticist and neuroanatomist with experience in collecting and cataloguing human tissue samples, Hossain took over leadership of the brain bank after Carver retired. Carver led the facility when it first opened at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine in 2004 and coordinated its transfer to the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2013. Hossain was aware of Carver’s desire to build a brain bank, having first crossed paths with him at Louisiana State University. 

“He wanted to do schizophrenia research with donated brains and knew I had experience in collecting human tissue samples,” Hossain said. 

This experience, combined with her prior knowledge of Carver’s brain bank at Louisiana State and later as colleagues at UMKC, made Hossain an ideal fit to step in as director. 

The future of the brain bank 

In the hopes of generating more data for active research efforts, Hossain is seeking additional brain bank donors, as well as grant funding to support collecting and studying tissue samples. She also hopes to continue expanding the visibility of the brain bank in the KU Medical Center research community, which is home to an array of brain health and neuroscience research efforts.

“I want the brain bank to be a resource for researchers in the community,” Hossain said. “Once more people know about it, they will want to use [the resource].” 

As research advances, Hossain’s top priority remains the brain bank’s selfless donors who make new discoveries possible. 

“We’re very grateful to those who have donated their brains, and we want to respect those people in the work that we do,” Hossain said. “That’s the most important thing to me.”