2023 Annual Report of the Japanese Brain Bank Network for Neuroscience Research (JBBNNR)

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe Japanese Brain Bank Network for Neuroscience Research (JBBNNR) received the renewal of Grant‐in‐Aid for Transformative Research Areas, MEXT, Japan from 2022 to 2027, whose center is the Brain Bank for Aging Research (BBAR), the first and only Japanese Brain Bank dedicated for aging and dementia research.MethodJBBNNR, in close collaboration with the Brain Bank Committee, the Japanese Society of Neuropathology (JSNP), is recruiting brain donors, propagating the BBAR protocols for neuropathological examination, and keeping the policy of open resource. JBBNR member consists of BBAR, the Brain Bank for Neurodevelopmental, Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders, Mihara Memorial Hospital and Fukushimura Hospital.ResultIn 2022, the effect of the pandemic of COVID‐19 still influenced the recovery of postmortem brains, owing to the recommendation of the National Institute of Infectious Disease (NIID), Japan, not to use electrical scissors in autopsy. This year, JBBNNR conducted a small number of COVID‐19 autopsies with prion format, following the informal permit of NIID. The total number of hospital autopsy cases slowly recovered. The effort to include legal autopsy of suicide victims and accidental death cases of developmental disorders experienced difficulty in Japanese culture and law. This year JSNP acknowledged ten board certified neuropathologists, whose main aim is to keep the Japanese brain bank system. JBBNNR is based on full autopsy and provided pathological basis to support brain‐ first, body‐ first hypothesis of Parkinson disease (PD). The high quality resource of JBBNNR contributed to first‐ line research, published in Nature and Cell this year.ConclusionJBBNNR continued to contribute neuroscience research, focused on AD and PD/ DLB in Japan.