Why Talking to Autistic Families About Brain Donation Matters

ehealth radio network

Dr. David G. Amaral, Ph.D., Scientific Director of Autism BrainNet and UC Davis Distinguished Professor at the UC Davis MIND Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences joins eHealth Radio and the Health News Channel. Dr. Amaral will be educating us about Autism BrainNet, a program of the Simons Foundation, that collects, preserves, and disseminates donated brain tissue to advance autism and related neurogenerative disease research.

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels & guest Dr. David G. Amaral discuss the following:

1. What is brain donation and how does it differ from organ donation?
2. Why is brain donation important to learn more about autism?
3. What is Autism BrainNet? I understand it’s the program’s 10th year anniversary.
4. How does brain donation work and what do families need to know?
5. How can people learn more about Autism BrainNet?

David G. Amaral, Ph.D., Scientific Director of Autism BrainNet and UC Davis Distinguished Professor at the UC Davis MIND Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Dr. David G. Amaral received his undergraduate education at Northwestern University and graduated with a degree in Psychology. He then moved to the University of Rochester where he received a joint PhD in Neuroscience and Psychology. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University. He then moved to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla where he remained until moving to the University of California, Davis in 1995 as a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Neuroscience.

Dr. Amaral was the Beneto Foundation Chair and founding Research Director of the MIND Institute from 1998 to 2018. In 2015, Dr. Amaral became Editor-in-Chief of Autism Research, the official journal of INSAR. He also serves as Scientific Director of Autism BrainNet, a program funded by the Simons Foundation to develop a postmortem brain repository to enhance autism research. He has published over 350 research articles that have been cited more nearly 90,000 times. He has co- edited three books. In 2019, Amaral was elected to the prestigious US National Academy of Medicine.

Website: https://www.autismbrainnet.org

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AutismBrainNet
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/autismbrainnet
X: https://x.com/autismbrainnet

People also listened to this: What needs to change or improve moving forward in the healthcare sector for 2025