This proposal request funds to support a workshop on linkage analysis of hereditary shin diseases. The purpose will be to lay the groundwork for a National Collaborative Study designed to establish criteria for diagnosis of these diseases, to identify patients with diseases, to gather samples from these patients, and to perform linkage analysis. Diseases to be considered will include less common diseases with clear modes of inheritance (e.g. the various types of epidermolysis bullosa) and the more common diseases with less certain modes of inheritance (e.g. psoriasis). Participants will include Dermatologists particularly knowledgeable in the diagnosis of hereditary skin diseases, scientists committed to the study of the skin and its diseases, and scientists with experience in the problems of identifying patients and collecting samples from them, in surveying such samples with multiple gene probes, and in the analysis of such data. The goals will be the identification of diseases of the skin in which such an analysis is likely to be successful, agreement on strategies for such studies, and agreement on practical approaches that could be used.
