A recent study published in Nature Genetics showed the link between genes and their associated risk in type 2 diabetes. Cassandra Spracklen, assistant professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences stated the study was aimed to use the genetic scores to weigh up a person’s risk of diabetes. 

The meta-analysis compares the DNA of 181,000 people with T2D condition against 1.16 million control subjects. The analysis was based on the search for a genetic marker called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, and associated variation between the gene sequence of treatment and control groups. The analysis allowed the researchers to distinguish and analyze the genome sequence involved in the disease risk. Meanwhile, it has provided genetic data for all the participant’s DNA irrespective of ancestry. This was achieved with the help of the DIAMANTE Consortium which assembled the genetic information of East Asia, African, South Asian, and Hispanic populations that made up to 50% of the subject data for analysis. 

The DIAMANTE consortium study was led by Andrew Morris, Mark McCarty, and Anubha Mahajan. In the study, 40 new genes were reported adding the numbers to 117 genes as the cause of T2D said, Mahajan. She also added that the study was a major step toward unrevealing the biology of the disease.