[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
so 3,500 years ago when they buried dead
people they’d stick in little jewels and
valuables and things that might be
useful in the afterlife remember King
Tut his was the most complete ancient
Egyptian royal tomb ever discovered and
when they opened it they found a fortune
that gold coffin and all the things
inside of it these days would be valued
at about 100 million dollars can you
imagine putting that kind of a treasure
in the ground well some very smart
people say we do it every day every time
we bury someone or allow them to be
cremated without having donated their
brain neuroscientists believe that some
of the most precious tissue known to man
those wasted this is what is more
important than anything to
neuroscientists when it comes to finding
the answers to brain disease it is a
human brain donated upon death for use
in neurologic research this one is from
a 101 year old man who was said to be
very astute up until the time of his
death that may be related to the fact
that his brain is a little bit larger
and shows fewer signs of deterioration
than a typical person his age this one
is going directly back to the brain Bank
when we’re finished this evening it is
on loan to us tonight just to help
illustrate the importance of this cause
because here’s the thing there is an
urgent need for people to donate their
brains when they die and it’s because
there are 50 million Americans that’s
one in six of us who’s suffering from
some kind of neurologic disease or
disorder if you think about it
someone in your immediate circle whether
it’s Parkinson’s disease autism now
impacting one and every 42 baby boys
born dementia mental illness gets a free
Nia a traumatic brain injury someone you
know is in the thick of it right now and
sorry to tell you this but it’s not
going to get any better our chances of
being diagnosed with a neurologic
disorder increase as we age and
everybody knows Americans are living
longer than ever right so you can see
where this is headed the problem is not
enough people know that brain donation
is a critical need right now or they
think that by having checked the organ
donation box they’ve got it covered
brain donation is not included in organ
donation separate arrangements need to
be made same for whole body donation
that’s usually for through a medical
college for anatomical study and the
brain is much more valuable for
neurologic research by the same token
you don’t have to have a neurologic
disorder to be a brain donor non-disease
so-called control brains are just as
valuable if you’re thinking you might
want to have an open casket it’s not a
problem
brain donation is not disfiguring and it
won’t cost your family anything for you
to donate your brain when you die
so how did I get to be this brain guy
unfortunately we learned all this the
hard way
my dad died two years ago from Lewy
bodies dementia and he had wanted to be
there is happy Father’s Day everybody
thank you he had wanted to be a body
donor and then when we did some research
we found that his brain had extra value
because of his disease so we made
arrangements to donate his brain and
there were immediately two benefits that
were just really surprising to us the
first one and this sounds kind of corny
but it’s true we felt a tremendous sense
of Solace and comfort knowing that
something good was coming of his death
that maybe we were helping some family
somewhere years down the road sparing
them from the ravages of this particular
disease and the other benefit has to do
with this background that you see these
are actual they’re called histology
majzub my dad’s brain enhanced to show
the white parts which are the proteins
that are the hallmark of Lewy bodies
dementia here’s why that’s important
there are lots of brain diseases that
can’t be definitively diagnosed while
someone’s alive
you can only really tell what’s going on
until a post-mortem autopsy report
that’s not a routine procedure nor is it
an inexpensive one but that kind of
pathology report is available to the
family with brain donation so now we
know and someday when we know more about
Lewy bodies dementia that’ll become even
more valuable so two years ago when we
did this we told a lot of people about
it it’s some really smart very well even
medical people had no idea that brains
were needed like this and many of them
wanted to make similar plans for
themselves but it was very complicated
then Vienna the National Institutes of
Health had just started recognizing this
huge need because researchers were
coming at him again and again saying we
need high quality well characterized
brain tissue for our studies so they put
together this network of brain banks
across the country called the neuro bio
bank they are at Mount Sinai in New York
the University of Miami in Florida UCLA
University of Maryland and at Harvard
and their job is to retrieve store and
distribute this precious tissue to
researchers but they still needed help
getting the word out that part they
hadn’t really gotten their arms around
yet so last year we launched the brain
donor project which is a not-for-profit
built solely to support the neuro bio
bank of the NIH our focus is to raise
awareness and simplify the process of
brain donation so we sort of work as a
conduit people can come to the website
learn what they need to know about brain
donation and then begin the process by
filling out an online form and getting
the process started and the six or seven
months that we’ve been operating we now
have donors from 46 states representing
50 categories of brain disorders so we
are thank you thanks
we have come so far in our knowledge of
the brain researchers have learned more
about the human brain in just the last
20 years than in all of recorded history
you know no longer do we mummify our
dead and bury them with their riches to
provide for the next life now we can
provide for the improved health and
wellness of future generations by
gifting the most valuable thing we have
just like this man did when he donated
his brain to science
[Applause]
[Music]
you
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
so 3,500 years ago when they buried dead
people they’d stick in little jewels and
valuables and things that might be
useful in the afterlife remember King
Tut his was the most complete ancient
Egyptian royal tomb ever discovered and
when they opened it they found a fortune
that gold coffin and all the things
inside of it these days would be valued
at about 100 million dollars can you
imagine putting that kind of a treasure
in the ground well some very smart
people say we do it every day every time
we bury someone or allow them to be
cremated without having donated their
brain neuroscientists believe that some
of the most precious tissue known to man
those wasted this is what is more
important than anything to
neuroscientists when it comes to finding
the answers to brain disease it is a
human brain donated upon death for use
in neurologic research this one is from
a 101 year old man who was said to be
very astute up until the time of his
death that may be related to the fact
that his brain is a little bit larger
and shows fewer signs of deterioration
than a typical person his age this one
is going directly back to the brain Bank
when we’re finished this evening it is
on loan to us tonight just to help
illustrate the importance of this cause
because here’s the thing there is an
urgent need for people to donate their
brains when they die and it’s because
there are 50 million Americans that’s
one in six of us who’s suffering from
some kind of neurologic disease or
disorder if you think about it
someone in your immediate circle whether
it’s Parkinson’s disease autism now
impacting one and every 42 baby boys
born dementia mental illness gets a free
Nia a traumatic brain injury someone you
know is in the thick of it right now and
sorry to tell you this but it’s not
going to get any better our chances of
being diagnosed with a neurologic
disorder increase as we age and
everybody knows Americans are living
longer than ever right so you can see
where this is headed the problem is not
enough people know that brain donation
is a critical need right now or they
think that by having checked the organ
donation box they’ve got it covered
brain donation is not included in organ
donation separate arrangements need to
be made same for whole body donation
that’s usually for through a medical
college for anatomical study and the
brain is much more valuable for
neurologic research by the same token
you don’t have to have a neurologic
disorder to be a brain donor non-disease
so-called control brains are just as
valuable if you’re thinking you might
want to have an open casket it’s not a
problem
brain donation is not disfiguring and it
won’t cost your family anything for you
to donate your brain when you die
so how did I get to be this brain guy
unfortunately we learned all this the
hard way
my dad died two years ago from Lewy
bodies dementia and he had wanted to be
there is happy Father’s Day everybody
thank you he had wanted to be a body
donor and then when we did some research
we found that his brain had extra value
because of his disease so we made
arrangements to donate his brain and
there were immediately two benefits that
were just really surprising to us the
first one and this sounds kind of corny
but it’s true we felt a tremendous sense
of Solace and comfort knowing that
something good was coming of his death
that maybe we were helping some family
somewhere years down the road sparing
them from the ravages of this particular
disease and the other benefit has to do
with this background that you see these
are actual they’re called histology
majzub my dad’s brain enhanced to show
the white parts which are the proteins
that are the hallmark of Lewy bodies
dementia here’s why that’s important
there are lots of brain diseases that
can’t be definitively diagnosed while
someone’s alive
you can only really tell what’s going on
until a post-mortem autopsy report
that’s not a routine procedure nor is it
an inexpensive one but that kind of
pathology report is available to the
family with brain donation so now we
know and someday when we know more about
Lewy bodies dementia that’ll become even
more valuable so two years ago when we
did this we told a lot of people about
it it’s some really smart very well even
medical people had no idea that brains
were needed like this and many of them
wanted to make similar plans for
themselves but it was very complicated
then Vienna the National Institutes of
Health had just started recognizing this
huge need because researchers were
coming at him again and again saying we
need high quality well characterized
brain tissue for our studies so they put
together this network of brain banks
across the country called the neuro bio
bank they are at Mount Sinai in New York
the University of Miami in Florida UCLA
University of Maryland and at Harvard
and their job is to retrieve store and
distribute this precious tissue to
researchers but they still needed help
getting the word out that part they
hadn’t really gotten their arms around
yet so last year we launched the brain
donor project which is a not-for-profit
built solely to support the neuro bio
bank of the NIH our focus is to raise
awareness and simplify the process of
brain donation so we sort of work as a
conduit people can come to the website
learn what they need to know about brain
donation and then begin the process by
filling out an online form and getting
the process started and the six or seven
months that we’ve been operating we now
have donors from 46 states representing
50 categories of brain disorders so we
are thank you thanks
we have come so far in our knowledge of
the brain researchers have learned more
about the human brain in just the last
20 years than in all of recorded history
you know no longer do we mummify our
dead and bury them with their riches to
provide for the next life now we can
provide for the improved health and
wellness of future generations by
gifting the most valuable thing we have
just like this man did when he donated
his brain to science
[Applause]
[Music]
you
[Applause]
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