The Generative Brain
Basque Brain Bank (Banco de Cerebros del Pais Vasco, BIOEF) logo

Basque Brain Bank (Banco de Cerebros del Pais Vasco, BIOEF)

The Basque Brain Bank is the neurological tissue bank and brain donation programme of the Biobanco Vasco para la Investigacion (O+eHun), a networked biobank owned by the Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research (BIOEF) with nodes in the main Osakidetza hospitals. Prion papers place the brain bank at the Araba University Hospital node in Vitoria-Gasteiz, which holds a neurological tissue bank. The biobank was entered in the ISCIII biobank registry in 2012. Its brains underpin Basque neuropathology work on sporadic CJD and fatal familial insomnia, including the 2023 series of 16 FFI cases. Families can register for free brain donation and receive a neuropathological report.

Key facts

  • The Biobanco Vasco is owned by BIOEF, which constitutes it, reports yearly to the authorising authorities and appoints its scientific director.
  • It is a network with a coordinating node in Barakaldo and hospital nodes at Basurto, Donostia, Galdakao, Araba and Cruces University Hospitals, plus the Basque transfusion and tissue centre; member organisations include OSI Araba/Bioaraba, IIS Biocruces Bizkaia and IIS Biodonostia.
  • The Araba University Hospital node at the Txagorritxu site holds a DNA bank, a tissue bank and a neurological tissue bank.
  • Prion papers from 2014 to 2018 give the affiliation Brain Bank, Hospital Universitario Araba, Biobanco Vasco para la Investigacion (O+eHun); a separate brain bank affiliation exists at Donostia University Hospital.
  • First named Banco de Tejidos para la Investigacion del Pais Vasco, it received sanitary authorisation in June 2009, was authorised in July 2012 and was registered with ISCIII on 23 July 2012 as biobank B.0000140.
  • Its 2015 rules set BIOEF as owner, the BIOEF board as governing body, a scientific director, a data controller and external scientific and ethics committees of at least four members each.
  • The Basque Government names the Basque ethics committee for research with medicines (CEIm-E) as the external ethics committee of this biobank.
  • The neurological tissue bank collects samples at diagnosis, during follow-up and from the brain after death, using a network collection structure.
  • Its undated online holdings table lists about 724 samples in 24 categories, including 25 Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease samples and one prionopathy with tauopathy of GSS type; Lewy body dementia (313), ALS (137) and Alzheimer disease (118) are the largest groups.
  • A 2017 news report said the brain donation programme had received 634 brains from many diseases.
  • Anyone with or without a neurodegenerative disease may register; donation can be set in life or decided by the family after death, is free, and the biobank pays transport, extraction and processing.
  • The family receives a report with the final neuropathological diagnosis and a note of what was done with the tissue.
  • Any research group can request anonymised samples through an online portal with ethics approval; the biobank ethics and scientific committees approve each request and a transfer agreement follows; samples are free but cost recovery tariffs apply.
  • It is a member of the ISCIII funded Red Nacional de Biobancos (39 biobanks), sits on its executive committee and took part in the 2014 to 2017 Plataforma Nacional de Biobancos.
  • ISO 9001:2015 certificates (2018) cover two other nodes, not the Araba node; ISO 20387 is being implemented.
  • The 2023 FFI case series identified 16 patients diagnosed 2010 to 2021 from the Basque Brain Bank database, with Bioaraba and CIC bioGUNE authors and ProFFIle and Basque Government grants.
  • A 2017 study reviewed 30 consecutive confirmed CJD cases at the Basque Brain Bank for 2010 to 2015 and linked copathology to a longer end stage of disease.
  • Two 2016 molecular studies of 8 and 7 FFI cases had an Araba brain bank co-author, with Ferrer as last author of both and Llorens as first author of one.
  • The Basque Country has had a population based prion registry since 1995, with a D178N cluster in Alava, and national data put its genetic prion disease rate at about four times the Spanish rate.

Timeline

  1. 2005BIOEF board agrees the proposal for a Basque DNA bank, the start of the biobank project.
  2. 2009Sanitary authorisation for installation and operation granted.
  3. 2012Entered in the ISCIII biobank registry as B.0000140, after authorisation on 2012-07-20.
  4. 2014First prion case report with the Araba brain bank affiliation.
  5. 2015Basque health order publishing the biobank rules appears in the official bulletin.
  6. 2016Hum Mol Genet FFI study with Araba brain bank co-authorship published.
  7. 2017News report gives 634 brains received.
  8. 2017Study of 30 confirmed CJD cases from the Basque Brain Bank (2010 to 2015) published.
  9. 2023FFI series of 16 cases from the Basque Brain Bank database published.
Sources for this page