The objective of the Collaborative Study of the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA), a multi-disciplinary, multi-center project, is to characterize the genetic factors involved in the determination of predispositions to alcoholism. The project aims to establish an archival database with comprehensive phenotypic assessments of families which can be correlated with measurements at the genetic level. Lymphoblastoid cell lines are being developed to ensure wide and continued availability of DNA. Since no single group in the field of alcohol studies has the expertise and experience necessary for a comprehensive approach, we have formed a consortium of researchers, including clinicians, biochemists, neurophysiologists, statisticians, and geneticists. Experts have been drawn from six different sites - SUNY Health Science Center, Washington University, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Connecticut, and University of California in San Diego in conjunction with the Scripps Institute. All six centers participate in the identical two-stage study protocol. This portion of the renewal application seeks an additional five years of support to complete the formation of the phenotypic data base, to collect accompanying genetic material, to conduct extensive genetic linkage and candidate gene studies, and to begin a follow-up of families, control subjects and individuals who will be informative in prospectively establishing the causes of alcoholism and related phenotypes. Importantly, quality assurance features have been implemented into the data collection and data management aspects of the study since its inception. Further, the repeated measures design will also be useful in decreasing the effect of diagnostic instability, thereby increasing the power of genetic analyses.
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