The Australian Sports Brain Bank is a medical research laboratory, a part of the neuropathology department of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) in Sydney.
The bank was established in 2018 as a collaboration between RPA and Sydney University to study the relationship between concussion, head injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
[2] In 2020, the bank identified CTE in the brain of Australian rules football hall of fame member Polly Farmer.
[4][5] In 2021 researchers uncovered neurological degradation to her cerebral white matter, similar to that found in the brains of American footballers.
Damage of this type is thought to be the result of repetitive head injury from contact sports and is linked to an increased risk of suicide.