• Question: Hello, have you ever held a slice of brain, if so what is it like?

    Asked by Callum to Rachel on 9 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Rachel Harris

      Rachel Harris answered on 9 Nov 2016:

      Hi Callum, yes I have held human brains. It’s definitely been one of the highlights of working as a scientist.

      When a brain is ‘fresh’ it feels a bit like jelly. The brain can be cut into slices but it’s very delicate. We usually slice up and freeze half of the brain as soon as possible. This helps to keep the shape and to make sure the proteins we want to work on don’t break down.

      We put the other half of the brain in a special solution to ‘fix’ it. This makes the brain go a more grey colour (fresh brain is a more pink colour) and also means that it won’t fall apart when we handle it. The pictures of brains on my profile have been preserved like this.

      It’s a real privilege to work with human tissue and we always get permission of the person donating the brain before death or their relatives before it’s passed over to us. Any work done using the brain also has to be approved by a group of scientists so we don’t waste any tissue.

      Find out more here:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-36918589

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