An international panel of recognized academic physicians, researchers, and clinical laboratory diagnosticians describe their best methods for characterizing neurologically relevant genes, their mutations, and their proteins. Providing detailed step-by-step instructions to assure successful experimental results, these experts cover the key methods for mutation detection and screening, including discussions of quantitative PCR, trinucleotide repeat detection, sequence-based mutation detection, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), in vitro protein expression systems, and studies of protein expression and function.