Neuroscientists in years to come will be able to learn not only from renowned neurosurgeons Joseph Maroon and Regis Haid, but from former Steelers running backs Jerome Bettis and Merril Hoge. All have pledged to donate their brains to the University of Pittsburgh’s National Sports Brain Bank (NSBB). Both a brain donation registry and novel longitudinal observational study, the NSBB aims to improve understanding of the neurodegenerative processes after traumatic brain injury.   

Maroon, an MD clinical professor of neurological surgery at Pitt who played football at Indiana University, says that while many papers have suggested concussions and subconcussive blows lead to permanent brain damage, unanswered questions remain. This is in part because diagnosing and analyzing data from these diseases is currently only possible through an autopsy.

The NSBB is changing the way such data are collected by tracking and studying participants over their lifetimes. The process will fill in the gaps by having each patient and a study partner, someone who knows them well and interacts with them regularly, answer questions about how their condition changes over time.

NSBB Director Julia Kofler, an MD associate professor of pathology, hopes this approach will eventually ensure the safety of those participating in sports and clarify why some are more vulnerable than others to neurodegenerative processes. “We would like to provide answers so that people can make an informed decision about what the risks are with individual sports,” Kofler says.

Donations to the NSBB will merge with the existing collection of more than 2,000 specimens in Pitt’s Neurodegenerative Brain Bank. The de-identified data and samples gathered will be shared with the broader research community. Participation in the NSBB is open to any adult who has participated in a variety of sports at all levels of play (Haid also played contact sports in college), served in the military or had a concussion from another cause.

The brain bank’s launch was supported by funding from the Chuck Noll Foundation for Brain Injury Research, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Pittsburgh Foundation. Sam Reiman, director of the Richard King Mellon Foundation, calls the NSBB “another example of Pitt and Pittsburgh stepping up to serve as national leaders in important work.”

Kofler encourages those who want to learn more, especially former collegiate and amateur athletes, to go to: www.pitt.edu/nsbb 

Read more from the Fall 2023 issue.