Hundreds of babies a year are diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism, genetic disease, malformations and neurotrauma. The study of human tissues, especially brain tissues, allows meaningful research to improve our understanding of the disease and make progress towards treatment and cure.

Human tissues are gift to humanity. They can be donated at the time of surgery or death.

Our Tissue Donation Program offers different options:

• Prospective Enrollment, by signing up as BTB Tissue Donor ahead of time
• Post-Surgical Enrollment, by signing up after you or your loved one had a surgery
• Post-Mortem Enrollment is still available after your loved one has passed away

Our ability to understand and treat childhood disorders depends, in large part, on the generous donation of tissue from patients with these diseases. The material collected in the Brain and Tissue Bank is sent to qualified doctors working in fields such as autism spectrum disorders; Down's syndrome and other chromosomal and genetic disorders; metabolic brain diseases; acquired disorders such as traumatic or hypoxic brain injury and normal human brain development.

We are indebted and grateful to those patients and families who have generously contributed tissue and cell lines for these studies.

Additional donations of tissue are welcomed and encouraged. The following outline describes the tissue donation process and reviews some of the frequently asked questions about the process.

Contact us at any time if you have any questions or concerns about donating tissue to the bank.

Call 1-800-59-BRAIN or email BTBcoord@med.miami.edu.