Stanford Alzheimer's Disease Research Center Donations

Become a Stanford ADRC Brain Donor

Nothing is more precious to our mission than brain donation at the time of death. We appreciate the generosity of brain donation from our ADRC participants.

The mission of the Stanford ADRC is to serve as a shared resource to facilitate and enhance multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research, outreach, and education in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and related disorders. This mission extends to milder forms cognitive impairment and encompasses healthy brain aging.

Our goal is to follow our ADRC participants over time until the time of eventual death, and at that point provide a definitive diagnosis through the ADRC Neuropathology and Biospecimens Core.  The state-of-the-art diagnosis adheres to national diagnostic criteria and is based on the microscopic examination of brain tissues obtained during a limited autopsy.  ADRC Core faculty contribute anonymous autopsy data to the National Alzheimer Coordinating Center and prepare a brain autopsy report in layman’s terms for the participant’s next of kin.  Other autopsy tissues are made available to qualified researchers.  The Neuropathology and Biospecimens Core maintains an archive of research tissues from ADRC autopsies.

During life, tissue specimens from blood, spinal fluid, and skin (skin cell fibroblasts) provided through the ADRC Clinical Core are processed, analyzed, and stored within the Neuropathology and Biospecimens Core.  Some specimens and genetic materials are provided anonymously to the National Cell Repository for Alzheimer’s Disease and to other qualified investigators.

Contact Us for Information on ADRC Enrollment and Brain Donation

Stanford ADRC
213 Quarry Road
MC 5979
Palo Alto, CA 94304

Phone: 650-721-5274


Gabriel Hergenroeder, BS
Autopsy Coordinator
ghergenroeder@stanford.edu



Learn more about brain donation

Why Should You Donate Your Brain To Science?

NIH National Institute on Aging Brain Donation Resources

Ever wondered why researchers collected the biological material they collect in cognitive research?  Our guest is a neuropathologist from the Stanford ADRC who will be talking about what they do with the blood, spinal fluid and eventually the brain tissue they collect and what they hope to learn from it.

Celina Rodriguez, periodista y Dr. Donal Born del Stanford ADRC les motivan de involucrarse en donar su cerebro y explican el respetuoso proceso de donar este precioso regalo.