Project

Systems biology of type 2 diabetes

Parent-of-origin effects, fetal programming and gestational diabetes

Team

Rashmi B Prasad, Principal Investigator

Geeti Arora, PhD student (former)

Gad Hatem, PhD student

Olof Asplund, PhD student

Research

Type 2 diabetes is a complex heterogeneous disease whose etiology includes genetic and epigenetic factors interacting with diverse environmental factors. GWAS studies have unearthed >120 risk loci explaining ~15% of heritability. One source of the missing heritability could be the more recent or rare variants with stronger effects segregating in families with a clear transmission of the disease. Another source of missing heritability includes the distinct parent specific transmission where the risk is conferred when transmitted by one parent and not the other. This could relate to intrauterine programming affecting pancreatic development.

Our projects are aimed at identifying these common and rare variants associated with type 2 diabetes and related traits, and their interactions with non-genetic factors. This will be achieved through systems biology approaches using genetic, epigenetic and transcriptomic data and will lead to identification of key pathways leading to pathological glucose levels and T2D risk.

A related question is the transitory diabetes during pregnancy. We are investigating the etiology of gestational diabetes mellitus in European and Asian-Indian populations.

Key focus

Exploring parent-of-origin effects on type 2 diabetes, insulin secretion and related traits.

Fetal programming and pancreatic development

Etiology of gestational diabetes mellitus

Funding

Diabetes Wellness

Direktör Albert Påhlssons Stiftelse

Swedish Research council networking grant

EFSD/Novo Nordisk Programme for Diabetes Research in Europe

Sydvästra Skånes Diabetesförening

Heart and Lung foundation