WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- A U.S. health official who previously said a valuable collection of human brain tissues might be destroyed reportedly has said the samples will be preserved.
The collection, stored in freezers by the National Institutes of Health, contains brains and other tissues from hundreds of people who died from a fatal illness called Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, which is related to mad cow disease. Many scientists in this field consider the collection, which dates back to 1963, priceless for studying CJD and could even help find treatments for the disorder.
Some controversy remains about the collection's fate, however.
The official, Eugene Major, acting director of the basic neuroscience program at the NIH, told United Press International in March the collection would be destroyed. The remaining collection "has very little remaining value" and could be destroyed if another entity does not claim them, he said.
Florence Kranitz, president of a non-profit patients' advocacy group, said Major told her the remaining tissues in the collection would be preserved.
"He reassured me in no uncertain terms," she said.
Major has not responded to e-mails or a phone call from UPI seeking clarification of his alleged remarks.
