The Douglas Brain Bank featured in the Journal de Montréal and on TVA Nouvelles – Dr. Mechawar

Published on: 2026-06-15 09:00

June 15, 2026

An article published in the Journal de Montréal highlights the Douglas Brain Bank, the largest brain bank in Canada. Home to nearly 3,800 donated brains, this unique research resource plays a vital role in advancing our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases and mental health disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, depression, suicide, and schizophrenia.

Each week, two to three new brain donations expand this exceptional collection, supporting hundreds of research projects conducted in Canada and around the world.

“We seek to better understand the mechanisms at work in the brains of people living with various psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.”

— Dr. Naguib Mechawar, Director of the Douglas Brain Bank

Research conducted at the Douglas Brain Bank has shown that childhood abuse can leave lasting biological changes in the brains of people living with major depression. The Brain Bank also supports research aimed at better understanding the mechanisms underlying disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as the brain changes associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated head injuries.

By providing brain tissue samples accompanied by detailed clinical information, the Douglas Brain Bank supplies more than 1,000 samples each year to research teams around the world, helping to accelerate discoveries in neuroscience.

The topic was also covered by TVA News. You can read the article below:

The Douglas Brain Bank featured in the Journal de Montréal and on TVA Nouvelles – Dr. Mechawar

Media: Site web

Source: le journal de Montréal