The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center conducts research on the causes, treatment and prevention of mental retardation in seven departments: Behavioral Neurology, Biochemistry, Clinical Research, Educational Psychology, Genetics, Neuropathology, and Social Science. It also trains professionals in the field of mental retardation and related disorders and provides services to institutionalized and community-based retarded individuals and their families. The Center is closely affiliated with the Massachusetts General Hospital and other institutions of higher learning. Numerous collaborations between Shriver scientists and investigators at these other institutions place the Center within the mainstream of biomedical, behavioral and social science research in the area. Major new appointments have been made at the Shriver Center in the last three years. Dr. Edwin Kolodny has been appointed Acting Director and is a candidate for a new Harvard Medical School (HMS) professorship established for the directorship of the Center. Dr. Verne Caviness, Jr. has been appointed to the Kennedy Professorship in Child Neurology and Mental Retardation established at HMS in 1982. Dr. Marcel Kinsbourne was appointed Director of Behavioral Neurology, Dr. Marty Kruass, as Co-Director of the Social Science Department and Dr. Wayne Miller, as Interim Director of the Genetics Department. Core grant funds were used to attract Drs. Kinsbourne and Krauss, and also to recruit Dr. Curtis Deutsch, a behavioral geneticist, Dr. Miyuki Yamamoto, a neuroimmunocytologist, and Dr. Joseph Urbanowski, a biochemist and molecular geneticist. Research productivity at the Shriver Center is enhanced by core facilities for animal care and glassware washing as well as through the computer, electron microscopy, machine shop, medical illustration, mass spectrometry, monoclonal antibody, and tissue culture facilities. This application seeks funds to add to these services and facilities a P-2 laboratory for molecular genetics, to replace aged central equipment, to purchase new equipment for common usage, to recruit a Director of Clinical Research, and to develop a Neuroendocrine Division within the Biochemistry Department.