July, 12 1999

We have recently mapped the chromosomal region co-segregating with inherited "glomus tumors" ("glomangiomas" or venous malformations with "glomus cells";  OMIM#138000 GLOMUS TUMORS, MULTIPLE) Am J Hum Genet, Boon et al., in press. We would like to welcome new clinical/laboratory collaborators for the purpose of identifying additional families for the positional cloning of the mutated gene. We are also looking for additional families for various other vascular anomalies, especially for inherited venous malformations, for which we have previously identified the causative gene, TIE-2 (Vikkula et al., Cell 1996; 87:1181-1190).

If you have seen/ know of any such families, please do not hesitate to contact us. Written informed consent is needed for each participant and all our studies have been approved by the ethical review board of the Faculty of Medicine of our university.

Looking forward to fruitful collaborations.