Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders and Brain and Body Donation Program

The B rain and B ody D onation P rogram ( BBDP ) at B anner S un H ealth R esearch I nstitute ( http://www.brainandbodydonationprogram.org ) started in 1987 with brain‐only donations and currently has banked more than 1600 brains. More than 430 whole‐body donations have been received since this service was commenced in 2005. The collective academic output of the BBDP is now described as the A rizona S tudy of A ging and N eurodegenerative D isorders ( AZSAND ). Most BBDP subjects are enrolled as cognitively normal volunteers residing in the retirement communities of metropolitan P hoenix, A rizona. Specific recruitment efforts are also directed at subjects with A lzheimer's disease, P arkinson's disease and cancer. The median age at death is 82. Subjects receive standardized general medical, neurological, neuropsychological and movement disorders assessments during life and more than 90% receive full pathological examinations by medically licensed pathologists after death. The Program has been funded through a combination of internal, federal and state of A rizona grants as well as user fees and pharmaceutical industry collaborations. Subsets of the P rogram are utilized by the US N ational I nstitute on A ging A rizona A lzheimer's D isease C ore C enter and the US N ational I nstitute of N eurological D isorders and S troke N ational B rain and T issue R esource for P arkinson's D isease and R elated D isorders. Substantial funding has also been received from the M ichael J . Fox F oundation for P arkinson's R esearch. The P rogram has made rapid autopsy a priority, with a 3.0‐hour median post‐mortem interval for the entire collection. The median RNA I ntegrity N umber ( RIN ) for frozen brain and body tissue is 8.9 and 7.4, respectively. More than 2500 tissue requests have been served and currently about 200 are served annually. These requests have been made by more than 400 investigators located in 32 US states and 15 countries. Tissue from the BBDP has contributed to more than 350 publications and more than 200 grant‐funded projects.