2021
The Brain Donor Project (BDP) has helped more than 12,000 individuals make plans to donate their brains when they die since the website launched in October 2016. Donors come from all over the United States, range in age from prenatal to 104 years old and represent more than 100 categories of brain disease. This success has been achieved largely by engaging dozens of patient advocacy and disease-based research groups as well as end-of-life professionals by offering a variety of outreach vehicles. Much has been invested in maximizing the BDP’s online presence to optimize its appearance in digital search. This work and our relationship as the intake arm of the National Institutes of Health NeuroBioBank (NBB) positions us as an ideal partner to lead—with the proper partner organizations and individuals—a robust effort to effectively invite understudied people to donate their brains when they die. We are anxious to put all of these assets toward advancing the complete science of brain disease.
