Collaborative Research Inc. of Waltham, Mass., has beenawarded a contract to establish permanent cell lines fromindividuals in families with several cases of schizophrenia.

The contract -- the first to be awarded for a study by theDepartment of Veterans Affairs called A Genetic Linkage Studyof Schizophrenia -- is from the Brocton/West RoxburyVeterans Affairs Medical Center. It will provide an unlimitedsupply of DNA to be used to determine the chromosomallocation of the gene(s) responsible for schizophrenia.

Localization is the first step in the cloning of the genes thatmust be identified to permit the development of diagnosticsand therapeutics for a disease that afflicts about 2.5 millionin the U.S.

Collaborative Research Inc. is engaged in large-scale genomemapping and DNA sequencing.

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