Abstract
Type 2 Diabetes is a serious metabolic
disorder that is rapidly becoming more common throughout the world. The causes
of diabetes are complex, involving aspects of diet and the environment;
together with genetic risk factors. Over the last decade, geneticists have
identified more than 100 genes with common variants that impact risk, but these
variants collectively explain only a small fraction of heritability. Finding less common variation of larger
effect by DNA sequencing studies has begun, but further progress has been
slow. I will discuss recent DNA
sequencing studies including more than 40,000 subjects. More briefly, I will
discuss two of the most intriguing recent developments in the field, involving
epigenetics (environmentally induced, and partially heritable, modifications to
DNA) and the gut microbiome (the vast bacterial community that plays a central
role in human health and metabolism).