Jean Paul Vonsattel, MD is the director of the New York Brain Bank. At the autopsy, Dr. Vonsattel and other neuropathologists, including Steven Chin, MD, PhD and James Goldman, MD, PhD, examine brains for cytoskeletal protein abnormalities (tangles), amyloid deposition (plaques), synaptic density, and neuronal cell loss. They also give a definitive diagnosis, which can only be made upon examination of the brain. Dr. Vonsattel has implemented a state-of-the-art barcode inventory system to track the storage and disbursement of the tissue samples. Requests for tissue samples are made online at the Brain Bank website which is linked to the inventory database. This computerized system will facilitate the process of retrieving and distributing samples to clinicians and scientists at Columbia University and other institutions.

Selected Recent Publications:

• Adamec, E., Mohan, P., Vonsattel, J.P., and Nixon, R.A. (2002). "Calpain activation in neurodegenerative diseases: confocal immunofluorescence study with antibodies specifically recognizing the active form of calpain 2." Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 104: 92-104.
• Adamec, E., Murrell, J.R., Takao, M., Hobbs, W., Nixon, R.A., Ghetti, B., and Vonsattel, J.P. (2002). "P301L tauopathy: confocal immunofluorescence study of perinuclear aggregation of the mutated protein." J Neurol Sci 200: 85-93.
• Cantuti-Castelvetri, I., Keller-McGandy, C.E., Albers, D.S., Beal, M.F., Vonsattel, J.P., Standaert, D.G., and Augood, S.J. (2002). "Expression and activity of antioxidants in the brain in progressive supranuclear palsy." Brain Res 930: 170-81.
• Dickson, D.W., Bergeron, C., Chin, S.S., Duyckaerts, C., Horoupian, D., Ikeda, K., Jellinger, K., Lantos, P.L., Lippa, C.F., Mirra, S.S., Tabaton, M., Vonsattel, J.P., Wakabayashi, K., Litvan, I., and Health, O.o.R.D.o.t.N.I.o. (2002). "Office of rare diseases neuropathologic criteria for corticobasal degeneration." J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 61: 935-46.
• Richfield, E.K., Vonsattel, J.P., MacDonald, M.E., Sun, Z., Deng, Y.P., and Reiner, A. (2002). "Selective loss of striatal preprotachykinin neurons in a phenocopy of Huntington's disease." Mov Disord 17: 327-32.
• Wheeler, V.C., Gutekunst, C.A., Vrbanac, V., Lebel, L.A., Schilling, G., Hersch, S., Friedlander, R.M., Gusella, J.F., Vonsattel, J.P., Borchelt, D.R., and MacDonald, M.E. (2002). "Early phenotypes that presage late-onset neurodegenerative disease allow testing of modifiers in Hdh CAG knock-in mice." Human Molecular Genetics. 11: 633-40.