The marvel of the human brain

Professor Richard Faull was awarded a Harkness Fellowship in 1975 to undertake postdoctoral research on the brain with leading neuroscientists in the US. In the 30 years since his return to the University of Auckland, where he is now Professor of Anatomy, Richard has established an international reputation for his studies on human brain diseases. In November 2007 he was awarded New Zealand’s top science award, the Rutherford Medal, by the Royal Society of New Zealand for his innovative research studies on the human brain. He also serves as Chair of the New Zealand Harkness Fellowships Trust Board.

Richard Faull

I first saw the human brain when I was a third year medical student at the University of Otago. I was immediately captivated by its beauty and endless complexity and decided to interrupt my medical studies to pursue a year’s research on the brain. I spent the year studying the intricacies of the basal ganglia in the rat brain, the region involved in the control of movement and affected by Parkinson’s disease in the human brain. That was one of the most exciting years of my life – I published seven papers, found a new pathway in the brain and presented my findings at an international conference. That year shaped the whole of my future career in medicine. I was captivated by the challenges of the brain and was in awe of just how the billions of brain cells worked together in the most complex and marvellous way to give each of us our own special behavioural profile and abilities that make us all unique and special people.

After completing my medical degree and spending a brief time in neurosurgery, I realized that if we were to provide innovative treatments for people with brain diseases we needed to advance our understanding of just how the normal human brain worked and how it was affected in diseases. I completed a PhD on the motor systems of the rat brain at Auckland University and was fortunate to be awarded a Harkness Fellowship to undertake three years of postdoctoral research studies in the USA, learning the very latest techniques for tracing the circuits in the rat brain from two leading neuroscientists, Dr William Mehler at NASA Ames Research Center and Professor Walle Nauta at MIT. The knowledge gained and the colleagues I worked with during my Harkness Fellowship played a critical role in the future development and direction of my research career on the brain. It set me up for a life of excitement and challenges and I am still undertaking collaborative research studies with my US colleagues.

I returned to Auckland University in 1978 and established my own small research laboratory on the brain, studying the anatomy and chemistry of the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia in the rat brain, the regions of the brain affected in Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and stroke. Soon after I was approached by Professor Arthur Veale, New Zealand’s leading geneticist, who looked after families with the tragic genetically inherited brain disease, Huntington’s disease (HD). Because there was no definitive gene test for the disease at that time and the clinical diagnosis was not always easy, he asked if I would be willing at the request of families to undertake pathological studies on the brains of their loved ones after death, to determine whether or not they actually did die of Huntington’s disease and thus whether the HD gene was in the family. This provided a unique opportunity to work with families affected by brain diseases in New Zealand and so began my studies on the human brain. The families were not only eternally grateful to get an accurate diagnosis and, in some cases, to learn that they didn’t have the gene, but were also enthusiastic advocates and supporters of us undertaking post-mortem research studies on the brains of their loved ones.

I was invited to present research update lectures at annual HD meetings throughout New Zealand, kept the families informed of recent research developments and advances in treatment, and assisted in providing ongoing support with clinicians and health professionals. Through this active interaction with the community, families and clinicians, our research studies on the human brain have been extended to include other neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Motor Neuron Disease and epilepsy. Families and patients affected by these tragic brain diseases become so committed to advancing research on the diseases that they enrol in our donor programme, and close to the time of death the family contact us to ensure all arrangements are in place for us to receive the brain as soon as possible after death to ensure that it is of maximal use for research studies.

Richard Faull amongst his research subjects

So over a period of more than 25 years, with close consultation and committed support from families who bequeath the most precious and special gift to science, the brain of their loved one, we have established an internationally recognized human brain bank which provides tissue for leading brain researchers both in New Zealand and overseas. Our research group at the University of Auckland has grown to over 15 research staff and 25 masters and PhD students. We have published over 100 research papers in international research journals detailing new and innovative findings on the pathology, genetics, chemistry, cell death and repair of the human brain in these tragic brain diseases, which will provide new treatment opportunities.

Most recently and unexpectedly, over the last five years our human brain studies have shown for the very first time that, contrary to well established dogma, the adult human brain has the potential to repair itself – it can make new brain cells throughout life and contains a special neurogenesis “motorway” for these new brain cells to travel to different regions of the brain and replace lost brain cells. These findings were published in Science in 2007 and provide new and exciting research opportunities for the development of new treatment strategies to promote brain cell repair and help patients suffering from brain diseases.