Brain power: how brain tissue is driving Parkinson’s research

What is the Parkinson’s UK Brain Bank?

Over 20 years ago, our Director of Research, Professor David Dexter, put work in motion to create the first brain bank dedicated to Parkinson’s research.

Now based at Imperial College London, the Parkinson’s UK Brain Bank is part of the Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson's Tissue Bank. Together, with the generous donations from people who pledge their brains specifically to Parkinson’s research, we can further our understanding of Parkinson’s and develop new treatments.

The Parkinson’s UK Brain Bank is made up of around 1,600 donations from people with and without Parkinson’s. In order to look at what changes are happening in Parkinson’s, researchers compare the differences between people with and without the condition. This means research needs people that aren’t diagnosed with Parkinson’s too. 

When each donated brain is received by the Brain Bank, a full report is prepared to include as much information as possible about the person, and what’s visible in the brain. Sometimes, the Brain Bank team will find early signs of Parkinson’s in tissue from people who weren’t diagnosed during their lifetime. These cases are rare, but give vital clues about what’s happening in the early stages of the condition.

To ensure that donated tissue has the most meaningful impact, research requests go through a careful selection process. Together, a panel of scientists and people directly affected by Parkinson’s decide which research projects the tissue should be used for.

What discoveries have been made from looking at the brain?

Studies using brain tissue have led to a lot of what we know about Parkinson’s today. Since 2009, over 400 requests from UK and international researchers have been fulfilled by the Brain Bank. Each of these requests has directly enabled investigations into the causes of and treatments for Parkinson’s.

Advances in our understanding include identifying changes in the dopamine-producing brain cells that are affected in Parkinson’s. For example, the build-up of damaging toxic chemicals caused by oxidative stress, problems with the tiny energy-producing batteries called mitochondria, and increased levels of iron in the brain.

As a result, new treatments are currently being developed and tested that may help to reduce oxidative stress, support mitochondria that don't work properly, and remove excess iron from the brain. These treatments have the potential to slow or stop the progression of Parkinson’s, something no current treatment is able to do.

Some donations to the Brain Bank are from people who have had Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). From these donations, researchers discovered that DBS may be helping to improve the health of mitochondria in people with Parkinson’s. Read more about the effects of DBS on mitochondria in our news story.

A snapshot of 2025

In 2025 alone, 17 studies were published using Brain Bank tissue.

• Researchers discovered patterns in how the brain’s support cells, called glia, are damaged in Parkinson’s. Based on this discovery, researchers have proposed a new system to show how brain cells and support cells interact as Parkinson’s develops. Read the full paper Acta Neuropathologica Communications. 
• Researchers also developed a new technique to see how alpha-synuclein, a protein that is linked to Parkinson’s, spreads in brain tissue. Read the full paper published in npj Parkinson’s Disease.

What projects are currently using Brain Bank tissue?

The Global Parkinson’s Genetics Programme

Genetics play an important role in how our bodies work. Some changes in people’s genes can influence their risk of developing Parkinson’s.

The Parkinson’s UK Brain Bank has collaborated with other brain banks around the world to build one of the largest genetic datasets for Parkinson’s. The large-scale genetic analysis, called the Global Parkinson’s Genetic Programme (GP2), aims to study the DNA from hundreds of thousands of people living with Parkinson’s around the world. The database will help identify what genetic factors are involved, and how they may interact with the environment. The study will also explore different subtypes of Parkinson’s.

A collaborative global effort led to GP2 publishing a paper in June 2026. Using over 3,000 samples from brain banks across the world, researchers investigated how genetics link to the changes seen in the brains of people with Parkinson’s.

They found that people with a change in the GBA1 gene had more abnormal protein clumps, called Lewy bodies, in their brain tissue. Whereas people with a change in the LRRK2 gene had fewer Lewy bodies and lived for longer. They also found that between 10% to 20% of people were misdiagnosed, which fits with the findings from previous studies. Read the full results in American Medical Association.

The more genetic data the scientific community has about Parkinson's, the more likely we are to find a cure. It’s also important that this research includes people from different backgrounds, to build an understanding of how Parkinson’s affects everyone around the world. Read more about ethnicity and Parkinson’s in our research blog.

Landmark

The advances in technology mean that we can investigate samples from the Brain Bank like never before. Landmark is a groundbreaking three-year research programme, aiming to understand Parkinson’s in more detail. Using advanced technology, we’re funding researchers to study individual brain cells to help uncover why some cells die in Parkinson’s, while others survive.

The collaborative project involves top researchers at Imperial College London and several major pharmaceutical companies. The idea is to share data with scientists around the world and rapidly turn laboratory discoveries into new treatments that slow, stop, or even reverse Parkinson’s.

Professor David Dexter, Director of Research at Parkinson’s UK, shared: “The Landmark project is a highlight of my career. I set up the Brain Bank in 2002 because I knew that one day techniques like single cell type RNAseq gene expression would be possible and allow us to unlock the secrets held in the brains of people with Parkinson's”.

Read more about the pioneering Landmark project in our news story.

Understanding memory problems in Parkinson's

People with Parkinson’s are more likely to develop changes in their thinking and memory. We’re funding a project led by Professor Sonia Gandhi to uncover what changes are happening in the brain by looking at tissue donated to the Brain Bank. She will use cutting-edge technology to map the key similarities and differences between brain cells of people with Parkinson’s, Parkinson’s dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and people without any of these conditions. The research aims to improve our understanding of why some cells become damaged, and find new ways to treat memory problems in Parkinson’s.

Developments in technology mean that we're able to learn more and more about Parkinson's from the brain tissue donated to the Brain Bank.

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

When the Brain Bank receives the brain from a donor, they need to confirm a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, a process that can take a lot of time to complete. But, powerful new AI tools are being developed to analyse images of the brain and identify signs of Parkinson’s. This aims to significantly speed up the diagnosis process so that we can make more brains available for research.

Read more about using AI to identify Parkinson’s in our news story.

A global digital image bank

The Brain Bank is creating a collection of over 37,000 images of brain tissue samples. This process will make it easier to share and analyse information with researchers globally. Information about someone’s genetics and symptoms is also shared, which gives researchers an understanding of the person as a whole.