deCODE integrates new genetic risk factor for type 2 diabetes

Iceland-based deCODE genetics has announced the discovery by an international consortium of scientists from the firm and major European and US academic institutions of a single-letter variation in the human genome that is associated with increased fasting glucose levels and risk of type 2 diabetes. The company will employ its CLIA-registered genotyping laboratory and existing testing platform to integrate the finding into its deCODEme personal genome scan, and to assess the addition of this new variant to its deCODE T2 reference laboratory test for assessing individual risk of the disease.

The multinational study analyzed a number of SNPs that had been linked with fasting glucose levels in several major studies involving some 36,000 individuals from Europe and the USA. The analysis identified a version of a single nucleotide polymorphism within the gene encoding melatonin receptor IB that was associated with notable increase in fasting glucose levels.