Announcement

The Human Genetic Mutant Ceil Repository, sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) since 1972, distributes well-characterized, thoroughly document ed, contamination-free cell cultures from patients with a wide range of genetic diseases and from unaffected family members.The purpose of the Repository is to promote and facilitate re search on human genetic diseases.The collection now contains approximately 4,000 individual cell cultures, including biochemi cally mutant human fibroblasts and lymphoblasts, amniotic fluid cell cultures, virus-transformed fibroblasts, animal cell cultures, hybridomas, somatic cell hybrids, and apparently normal human fibroblasts and lymphoblasts.In recent years, a special effort has been initiated to establish cultures from extended reference pedigrees for developing the human linkage map with respect to known DN A markers, as well as mapping gene loci.To accomplish this objective, the NIGMS Repository staff has acquired peripheral blood specimens from multigenerationa! families with cystic fibrosis, tuberous sclerosis, Tourette syndrome, primary affective disorder, familial dysautonomia, fragile X-linked mental retardation, neurofibromatosis, Huntington disease, and maturity onset diabetes of the young.