Approved research

The role of genetic, environmental factors and their interactions in the development of diabetes and its related health conditions under different ethnicity: comparison of East Asians and Europeans

Lay summary

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a complex disease that is caused by multiple genetic and environmental factors and their complex interplay. People with different ethnic background have different metabolic traits, but it is not well understood how they end up with a same deleterious metabolic endpoint as DM. Moreover, different genetic and environmental background of each population can contribute to the different natural history of DM. We have been studied the genetic characteristics and the development DM in Korean population. Through comparative analyses of Korean and UK Biobank cohorts, we aim to clarify following questions: what is the different characteristics in the development of prediabetes, DM and its complications between East Asian and European populations, Which genetic or environmental factors contribute to these differences in the DM pathogenesis, and how genetic and environmental factors interact with each other in these populations. Finally, we hope these finding would help realization of precision medicine.