Project name: GWAS to identify risk genes for type 2 diabetes in Asian Indians

Description: The Sikh population is a well-defined, carefully collected homogeneous population from India and the US. It has unique characteristics, which are ideal for genetic studies. Sikhs are strictly a non-smoking population and about 50% of participants are life-long vegetarians. All subjects included in the genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on cardio-metabolic traits were recruited from one geographical location. Our population demonstrates a strong familial clustering of type 2 diabetes and related cardio-metabolic disorders1,2 that may be genetic and we believe that the contribution of alleles at specific loci are likely to be unique to Punjabi Asians compared to Europeans1. Our group first showed that the association of a common variant at rs9939609 in the FTO (fat mass and obesity) gene in South Asians was independent of BMI3 in contrast to Europeans where the association of same variant with T2D is mediated through obesity4. These findings were later... (for more see dbGaP study page.)

Relevance: Medical