Oxford Brain Bank Open Days - Cancer Research

The aim is to show what clinical researchers in Oxford are doing to improve diagnosis and care. The event is organised in partnership between the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and the Cancer Research UK Oxford Centre, and is supported by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and the Brain Tumour Charity.

Fifty people of a wide range of ages attend the day, which included tours of the Neuropathology Lab and the Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the brain. Visitors have the chance to look down a microscope and discover how tissue is prepared for analysis, as well as talking to a neurosurgeon about how he performs operations, and seeing an MRI scanner in action.

After an introductory talk about the importance of having a brain bank, attendees are divided into four groups for a laboratory tour, during which they have the opportunity to look down a microscope at a healthy and diseased human brain; see a real human brain; observe how tissue is prepared for analysis; and learn about research projects involving brain bank tissue.