The Brains Behind MS Research

About the National Multiple Sclerosis Brain Bank
The National Multiple Sclerosis Brain Bank is a resource and repository for human specimens — brain, spinal cord, optic nerve and related tissue — along with detailed medical information from people with and without MS. It’s a collaboration between investigators at Columbia University, the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Yale School of Medicine, and is funded by the Society.

Types of research being done

The brain bank’s mission is to collect the tissue and make it available for study of the disease’s pathology — its nature, and cause and effects on the brain. Reich’s work involves using MRI to inform the interpretation of cutting-edge pathology; for example, looking at genes that are active in each cell type, the proteins they’re making and using, how one cell talks to the next cell, and how it all fits together to drive progression and neurodegeneration. “We’re finding new methods to link the data we collect over time from people who live with MS to be able to interpret that data in light of what’s present in the tissue,” Reich says.

Claire S. Riley, MD, the Karen L. K. Miller associate professor of neurology at the Columbia University Medical Center, uses tissue to study aging in MS, specifically cognition. There is often a disconnect between the disease burden on MRI and the clinical symptoms. For example, in her clinical practice, she’ll see some people with a lot of disease activity who are minimally affected and others with few MRI-detected brain lesions who become very disabled. “I have to believe there’s something about the pathology we’re not picking up from the MRI that explains that paradox,” Riley says. [read more]

Source: Momentum