Case Study: VU University Amsterdam advances psychiatric genetics research with SURF's Research Compute Capacity Services

Comprehensive datasets provide insight into psychiatric disorders

VU University Amsterdam's psychiatric genetics research team, led by Prof. Dr. Danielle Posthuma, needed extensive datasets and immense computing power to map the genetic variants involved in psychiatric disorders. The challenge was to securely combine and analyze sensitive patient data from a global consortium of researchers, which posed significant privacy and data management hurdles. To meet this need, they turned to the vendor SURF for its Research Compute Capacity Services (RCCS).

SURF provided a centralized, secure platform that met all privacy and security requirements, enabling the consortium to pool and analyze data from 70,000 patients and 100,000 controls. The solution allowed for controlled, consistent data analysis and provided the immense computing power required for the research. The long-term collaboration with SURF, which has lasted over a decade, was highlighted by the research team as highly effective, with excellent support and consultation that directly contributed to their ability to perform their large-scale genetic studies.

VU University Amsterdam

Danielle Posthuma

Professor of Psychiatric Genetics