Research highlight: Protein SATB2 influences intelligence

Human cognitive performance takes place in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Special nerve cells in these brain regions contain the protein SATB2. If it is missing, the 3D structure of the genetic information changes and with it the ability to think.

Researchers at the Institute for Neuroscience at the Medical University of Innsbruck (MUI) have now succeeded in visualizing the 3D structure of DNA with and without SATB2. Thus they were able to prove that SATB2 changes the 3D structure of DNA risk loci, i.e., those gene regions whose sequence is associated with the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders.

"It was a surprise that SATB2 specifically influences these risk loci. We therefore suspect that neuropsychiatric disorders are exacerbated or caused by the unsuitable 3D structure of the DNA," says Georg Dechant, director of the Institute for Neuroscience at the Medical University of Innsbruck.

Computations done on VSC

For this investigation, the team obtained data from an animal model, analyzed them and transferred them to a human model. The data sets were enormous – four terabytes of raw data from next generation sequencing. To carry out such a complex bioinformatic data analysis, the team used supercomputing resources of the Vienna Scientific Cluster.

The research project was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), Irish Research Council, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).