How the Repository Came to Be

In 2004, with support from the NJ Department of Health and Human Services, the Tourette Syndrome Association of New Jersey, Inc. sought to create better answers to help NJ families and individuals with TS.

The idea for a Center of Excellence, offering a range of coordinated services was born, and today has come to be known as The New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome and Associated Disorders.

In looking for affiliated partnerships, we discovered that the National Institutes for Health had a nearby repository, the Rutgers University Cell and DNA Repository (RUCDR), which was collecting and disseminating blood and DNA cell lines to the scientific community for the study of diseases such as alcoholism, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, autism etc.

It occurred to us — that science revealed a genetic link in the case of Tourette Syndrome, such a program would make sense for TS too.  And so, in 2006, the NJCTS sharing repository was established—the only such program of its kind in the world.