A Before-death Cohort for Body Donors was recently started by PUMCH and the Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. According to Professor Zhu Yicheng, deputy director of the Department of Neurology, PUMCH, the cohort will include old-age databank of before-death clinical data, biological samples collected before death and organs donated after death, as well as long-time follow up. It aims at researching into age-related diseases and brain science, so as to help solve the major medical and healthcare problems facing an aging society.

PUMC set up in 1999 a station accepting body donations. So far more than ten thousand people have registered and 1510 donations have actually been made. On the principles of being “voluntary” and “free”, the dead body of a donor will go to a medical college so that students can have a chance of practice. Hence the name “wordless teachers”. Based on that, PUMC Brain Tissue Biobank was established in 2012.