NIMH CENTER FOR GENETIC STUDIES

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The role of genetic factors in the familial aggregation of serious brain disorders is well supported. The NIMH Human Genetics Initiative (http://www-grb.nimh.nih.gov/gi.html) supports multidisciplinary and collaborative research projects, employing state-of-the-art diagnostic procedures and analytic methods, to collect large samples of pedigrees for genetic analyses of schizophrenia and mood disorders. Comprehensive clinical data and biomaterials collected in this Initiative will be made widely available by NIMH to qualified investigators in the scientific community for genetic analyses that aim to identify genes conferring susceptibility to these disorders. The main objective of this contract is to establish the NIMH Center for Genetic Studies, which will accomplish the following: (1) receive clinical, diagnostic, pedigree structure, and other data and blood samples from NIMH-supported human genetics projects, which will ascertain pedigrees with multiple individuals affected with schizophrenia, mood disorders, or other mental disorders; (2) process data to create electronic databases of phenotypic information for use in genetic analyses; (3) transform lymphocytes from received blood samples to create high-quality cell lines, from which DNA will be extracted; (4) incorporate these data and biomaterials with comparable existing data and biomaterials in the NIMH Human Genetics Initiative; (5) receive data derived from genetic analyses of biomaterials in the Human Genetics Initiative; and (6) widely distribute all phenotypic and genotypic data, as well as biomaterials (cell lines and DNA samples), in the NIMH Human Genetics Initiative to qualified investigators in the scientific community.