Mission

The Iowa NeuroBank Core (INBC) is committed to advancing research by helping scientists explore the complex links between human neuropathology, neurodiversity and clinical symptoms. By providing access to cutting-edge molecular biology techniques and high-quality curated specimens from donors, the Core supports a wide range of research efforts. Our goal is to empower discoveries in neurological conditions, driving progress with technological breakthroughs.

History

Funded by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, the Iowa NeuroBank Core was planned in 2019 and established in 2020 as a wealth of resources for investigators utilizing human specimens and related technologies.

Thanks for all the additional philanthropic support to make this tremendously collaborative effort in the Iowa Neuroscience Institute and across Departments of Internal Medicine, Pathology, Neurology, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology at the Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa to advance human brain research and spatial biology advancement. 

The Iowa NeuroBank Core has received incredible contribution of the patient donors and their families, as well as continuous federal funding from the Core users since its foundation. 

Facilitating biobanking and research in advanced biological fields through the use of innovative technologies and state-of-the-art instruments.

Iowa NeuroBank Core is known for capturing a spectrum of neuropathology in the human brains and housing technologies in a single core facility, which can help researchers from various fields to advance human brain research and personalized medicine:

  1. "Neurotypical" (healthy controls): from fetus to adults over 98 years old
  2. Alzheimer's disease (AD)
  3. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD): Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) families, including FTLD-tau, FTLD-TDP43, FTLD-UPS, FTLD-C9orf72, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP)
  4. Primary age-related tauopathy (PART) 
  5. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
  6. Huntington's disease (HD): juvenile-onset HD (JOHD), adult-onset Huntington's Disease (AOHD)
  7. Multiple sclerosis (MS)
  8. Multiple system atrophy (MSA)
  9. Lewy body disease (LBD)
  10. Parkinson's disease (PD)
  11. Alcohol use disorder: alcoholism, alcohol dependence, alcohol dependence, alcoholism, alcohol addiction
  12. SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)
  13. Schizophrenia
  14. Epilepsy
  15. Essential Tremor
  16. Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) 
  17. 1p36 deletion syndrome
  18. Trisomy 21
  19. Snyder-Robinson Syndrome
  20. COL4A1 mutation
  21. Hypoxic-ischemic injury
  22. Diabetes: diabetes mellitus, type 1 (DM, type 1), diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM, type 2), steroid-induced diabetes, gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)
  23. Obesity
  24. Cancer

As the leading global cause of disability, human brain disorders are a complex and multi-dimensional burden across generations.  There is a critical gap for effective translation between discovery and therapeutics for human brain disorders due to the limited access to human brain specimens and cutting-edge technologies for challenging human specimens. 

Biobanking Programs:

  1. Brain tissues
  2. Meninges
  3. Choroid plexus
  4. Blood (whole blood, plasma, serum)
  5. Fibroblasts
  6. iPSC cells

Spatial Omics Programs: 

1. Spatial Transcriptomic services: 10x Genomics' Visium, Vizgen Merscope, ACD's RNAscope

2. Epigenomics services: Qiagen Q48

How We Work with You:

1. Experimental Design 

2. Sample Collection, Storage, and Submission

3. Data Collection, Storage, and Analysis support options

3. Instruments, Technologies, Software, and Expertise

4. Project Planning and Grant Applications (Letter of Support Requests)

5. Hands-on Workshops, Seminars, Education for undergrad research experience, and STEM outreach events  

BioBanking

Slabbed human fixed brain tissue
FFPE Blocks of human tissue
Microscopic view of fibroblasts
Pipetting media into tissue culture wells
Image of 40x Microscope objective
research under the microscope