Project Summary

Eiji Hattori, M.D. (Young Investigator 2005) of the University of Chicago, plans to make a transgenic animal with a gene complex, G72/G30—which has been associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder—to study the behavioral consequences of this DNA in the animal. Since the complex contains two overlapping expressed genes, one on the sense and the other on the antisense strand, both of which are primate-specific, Dr. Hattori will engineer the animal to contain a human genomic fragment of the region. Behavioral tests relating to rodent models of psychiatric phenotypes will then be performed. These assays will focus on schizophrenia- and mania-like states, for which modeling has been difficult. Also, Dr. Hattori proposes to examine the effect of this gene complex on transcription of other genes in the brain using microarrays. Findings should provide an understanding of the G72/G30 in vivo function in mammals, and may lead to an unrecognized neurobiological pathway possibly shared by bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Program Area: MULTIPLE FOCUS AREAS\Bipolar Disorder/Schizophrenia

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