All articles tagged with #brain donation
British resident Andre Yarham died at 24 from an extremely rare early-onset frontotemporal dementia, diagnosed in 2023 after an MRI showed a brain like a 70-year-old. His case ranks among the youngest documented and highlights genetic mutations linked to FTD; his family donated his brain to science to aid research. Dementia affects over 55 million people worldwide, with numbers expected to rise by 2050.
Andre Yarham, a 24-year-old from Norfolk diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, chose to donate his brain to science after his death to aid research and help prevent others from suffering similar fates. His condition rapidly worsened, leading to his death over Christmas, highlighting that dementia can affect young people and is a cruel disease with no cure.
The Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center faces potential setbacks in Huntington's disease research due to funding cuts that threaten the timely collection and preservation of donated brain tissue, which is crucial for ongoing studies.
OJ Simpson's lawyer confirmed that there are no plans to donate his brain to science and that his body will be cremated, with a "celebration of life" event for close friends and family. The lawyer also clarified controversial comments regarding Simpson's estate and debts, emphasizing the need to tone down rhetoric while warning of outstanding IRS debts and seized possessions.
Lisa Barnes, a Black female cognitive neuropsychologist, has been running the Minority Aging Research Study since 2004, one of the largest studies of Alzheimer’s focused exclusively on Black people. Barnes has created a brain bank used by other researchers to understand the illness in this population. Her work has raised critical questions about how the disease differs in Black populations, why cognitive testing relied on to clinically diagnose dementia may fail Black patients, and whether the disease progresses differently in them. Barnes' research has shown that Alzheimer's does not progress the same way for all people and that social factors associated with racial categories, such as wealth, education, discrimination, and access to health care, play a significant role.