Diabetes Genetics Initiative (Broad-Novartis)

The Diabetes Genetics Initiative is a collaboration of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Lund University, and Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

TThe collaboration reflects the mission of the Broad Institute to pull together a community of researchers to tackle complex problems that require multi-disciplinary teams and that are difficult to solve in the traditional laboratory setting, said Broad founding director Eric Lander, a professor in MIT’s Department of Biology. Type 2 diabetes is one of the world’s most significant and growing public health threats. It affects more than 170 million people worldwide. That number is expected to reach 300 million by 2025.

There is a clear underlying genetic propensity to developing type 2 diabetes. The initiative establishes a research partnership of physicians, geneticists, and others to identify the inherited risk factors for the disease. Identification of these genetic factors will improve scientists’ understanding of how genetics contribute to type 2 diabetes and its complications, as well as inform clinical decisions about the disease and perhaps contribute to new medicines tailored to patients. Broad-Novartis Initiative researchers will study thousands of DNA samples, collected by Professor Leif Groop and colleagues at Lund University. The Lund team will partner in the design and analysis of the research program.

The Diabetes Genetics Initiative combines the resources and expertise of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Lund University to identify the genetic determinants of type 2 diabetes. This unique collaboration aims to collect and analyze samples from type 2 diabetic patients from nations across the globe, performing whole genome scans to provide a comprehensive view of the DNA sequence variants associated with the disease. This partnership has been forged with the explicit goal of making this vast amount of crucial data available to researchers globally and free of cost, which should lead to a greater understanding of disease biology and speed the development of more effective therapies.