Our understanding of autism today is based largely on the generosity and foresight of families, who during a very difficult time in their lives when a family member has died, made the decision to donate the brain for research. You can make a difference in autism spectrum research by knowing more about this program.
The Research
The Autism Tissue Program has a world-wide network of researchers seeking to understand how and why the brain is different. The brain is the organ that is expressing the behaviors that we identify with autism (repetitive and restricted activities, lack of communication and social skills) – no matter what the cause. Brain tissue is vital because it is the only way to see individual brain cells and read the DNA and genetic messages to get a better understanding of autism. Use of post-mortem tissues for histological and biochemical methods has in the past been of crucial importance to understand and developing treatment options in many CNS disorders.
Hope and Trust
Brain tissue donation reflects an individual’s or family’s decision to make the choice to benefit others and honors the complex and challenging life of the affected donors. The stewardship of this gift is a serious duty and depends on dedicated collaboration of parents, advocates, governmental agencies and scientists. We are forever grateful to those whose lives were challenged by autism or those family members or other caring individuals who bequeathed to the rest of us their Gift of Hope.
Brain Tissue Donation
The Autism Tissue Program is a campaign to understand and treat a whole spectrum of pervasive developmental disorders; and the sad fact is that the most precious tissue for research will be from our youngest children who die unexpectedly. Because of the high hereditability of autism spectrum disorders, we encourage all family members to donate. Researchers need brain tissue from "normal controls," i.e. people who are neither autistic nor related to people with autism, to compare to tissue from affected individuals and their families members.
To avoid undue financial burden on families, the Autism Tissue Program assumes the any additional cost of tissue recovery.
How to Donate
Talk about this with your family and sign up with us on this site. If a death occurs, call, or provide medical professionals with, the 24-hour number for the Autism Tissue Program, 1-877-333-0999, for donation to the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center to proceed. Organ donor programs do not automatically recover brain tissue so your consent and the call are necessary.
To learn more, visit http://www.memoriesofhope.org/.
