Key Milestones
NIMH established the Center for Collaborative Genomic Studies on Mental Disorders through the NIMH Human Genetics Initiative to leverage human genetic samples and data.
Repository began with studies of Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Alzheimer's disease, establishing the foundation for collaborative genetic research.
Added major disorders including Autism, Depression, and Tourette Disorder, growing to over 200 studies across 20+ disease-based collections.
A stem cell repository was added to include induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and their derivatives in the banked resources.
NIMH awarded a multi-year contract to the Coriell Institute for Medical Research to manage NRGR. Operations are transitioning from Rutgers to Coriell.
Over one million samples distributed to 450+ investigators worldwide, supporting approximately 1,800 genetic research studies and 800+ publications.
Our Story
In 1988, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) established the NIMH Center for Collaborative Genomic Studies on Mental Disorders (CGSMD) through the NIMH Human Genetics Initiative (NIMH-HGI), to leverage and increase the value of human genetic samples and data produced through NIMH funded research. The NIMH Center, now known as NIMH Repository and Genomics Resource (NRGR), plays a key role in facilitating psychiatric genetic research by providing a collection of over 200,000 well-characterized, high-quality patient and control samples from a wide range of psychiatric illnesses and ancestrally diverse populations.
The NIMH began its sharing initiative in 1990 with studies of Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Alzheimer's disease, adding other major disorders such as Autism, Depression, and Tourette Disorder over the years. The Repository has grown to include over 200 studies organized into more than twenty primarily disease-based collections. Increasing the cohort size of subjects with a neuropsychiatric disorder is a key factor in GWAS success and the discovery of rare de novo variants. The NIMH policy of regulated but relatively unfettered data and biospecimen sharing has allowed for larger cohort studies, greatly facilitating gene discovery. Work supported by the Repository has resulted in over 800 publications with tens of thousands of citations and several hundred replicated genetic findings reported from large-scale genome-wide studies.
While the Repository initially focused on creating immortalized lymphoblastoid cell lines to provide a renewable source of DNA for genetic studies, the services offered have grown over the years. The Repository now offers a full range of DNA and RNA extraction and analytic services, and the cell services have expanded to include the NIMH Stem Cell Resource, which provides banking and validation of reprogrammed cells (e.g., iPSCs) and source cells (e.g., fibroblasts) derived from postnatal-to-adult human patients and controls. To date, NRGR has distributed over one million samples to over 450 investigators worldwide and has supported approximately 1,800 genetic research studies on mental illnesses.