News Releases & Research Results Identification of new gene regions responsible for type 2 diabetes in an East Asian population

The results of research conducted by Specially Appointed Professor (at the time of research) Takashi Kadowaki and Professor Toshimasa Yamauchi of the Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, Team Leader Momoko Horikoshi of RIKEN CENTER for Integrative Medical Sciences, and others.

• Genome-wide association analysis was conducted using genetic information collected from an East Asian population (400,000 individuals) in collaboration with research institutions in East Asia. As a result, 61 gene regions that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, including those involved in muscle/fat differentiation and microRNAs, were newly identified.
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• Two independent signals in one gene region were demonstrated to potentially increase the risk of type 2 diabetes by regulating the expression of different genes in various organs.
• The results of research should lead to the elucidation of the pathology of type 2 diabetes and the development of therapeutic drugs.

This research project was conducted with the support of the Platform Program for Promotion of Genome Medicine by AMED.

The results of research were published online in the British science journal Nature on May 7.

Cassandra N Spracklen., et al. Identification of type 2 diabetes loci in 433,540 East Asian individuals Nature
DOI：10.1038/s41586-020-2263-3