Strategy for the future
It is anticipated that continual technological advances will allow ever more refined investigations into the molecular basis of disease. There will thus continue to be a need for brain banks, and the importance of the tissue is likely to increase as the methods become more powerful. Additionally, as the number of subjects with banked tissue and neuropathological diagnoses increases, population-level investigations using epidemiological methods will be possible. Such “autopsy-verified epidemiology” has the potential to add precision to the knowledge base that has previously been based on clinical diagnoses, with their inherently higher rate of diagnostic misclassification. At SHRI, our primary field of study will continue to be normal aging and age-related disease. We will strive to increasingly relate molecular-level findings not only to physiology, but also to health care, behavior, sociology and economics. Through this multifaceted approach, we hope to help reduce the negative aspects of aging.