Dr Goldring, Laura McKay, Dr Dexter and Regina Vontell

Apart from myself, the team consists of our secretary, Laura McKay, and two laboratory technicians, Louisa McGuinness and Regina Vontell.

I joined six years ago and have been involved from the start in setting up and developing the Tissue Bank. I promote what we do to different audiences, and act as an essential liaison point for everyone. I also manage all the day-to-day office and laboratory activities.

I spend a lot of time talking to prospective donors and their families, our funder – the Parkinson’s Disease Society, healthcare professionals and researchers wanting to use donated brain tissue. We need to ensure that the Tissue Bank is up to date with tissue processing, and the way we store information and keep accurate records. It’s also vital that we follow the ethical and Government guidelines for tissue donation, storage and distribution.

Dr David Dexter is Scientific Director, and he oversees all aspects of the day-to-day running of the Tissue Bank, including financial and scientific aspects. Along with myself, Dr Dexter is also actively involved in publicising the work of the Tissue Bank to prospective donors, healthcare professionals and the research community. Dr Dexter also presents his research studies and the work of the Tissue Bank at Parkinson’s research meetings in the UK and internationally, where he receives feedback on the types of tissue required.

Dr Ronald Pearce is the Clinical Director. He reviews the clinical notes from all donors to the Tissue Bank, and collates the information to produce clinical summaries to accompany the neuropathological analysis. Dr Pearce was instrumental in the development of the lifestyle and medical history questionnaires that we send out to potential donors. Dr Federico Roncaroli and Dr Stephen Gentleman provide detailed neuropathological reports on all the cases coming in to the Tissue Bank, and advise on processing of tissue.

You can find more about the roles of our technicians by reading Louisa’s article on page 4.

Providing 24-hour support

We couldn’t do what we do without our on-call rota staff. It’s crucial to have people on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, ready to respond to the death of a registered donor, and to be able to arrange speedy collection and processing of their brain tissue. This requires a co-ordinator and two assistants on call at all times, ready for action. Our on-call support is provided by the Tissue Bank staff, the Scientific and Clinical Directors, and postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers from the department. Together, we provide a pool of five co-ordinators and between eight and 14 assistants to fill the rota outside normal working hours.