The Broad Institute, Lund University and Novartis have announced the completion of a genome-wide map of genes related to type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

Driven by recent advances in the knowledge of human genetic variation, high-throughput genomic technologies, and computational methods for data analysis, the partnership is now releasing the results of a systematic survey of every gene in the genome - roughly 20,000 genes in total. The data include detailed clinical information from more than 3,000 type 2 diabetes patients in Sweden and Finland, and analyses of 500,000 genetic differences encoded in each patient's DNA.

It is hoped that the Diabetes Genetics Initiative database, accessible online for free to scientists around the world, may lead to the development of new and more effective approaches to diagnosis, prevention and therapy for type 2 diabetes.

Source: Broad Institute