- Functional Genomics Section
- Developmental Genetics Section
- Neuroscience Section
- Metabolism and Inflammation Section
- International Collaborative Research
Genetics of Type II Diabetes
Group Leader : Roger Cox
In the UK about 1.5 million people (2004 figures) have Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes can reduce life expectancy and by the time of diagnosis about half of people show signs of complications such as eye, kidney and cardiovascular disease. Current treatments can reduce the risks of complications significantly. See the Diabetes UK website for more information http://www.diabetes.org.uk .
Our overall aim is to develop new mouse models for type 2 diabetes and its complications that will allow the identification of key genes and/or pathways and for a systematic analysis of the process of disease development and the effect of environmental factors. This may help further the understanding of the biology of diabetes and ultimately identify new targets for therapeutic intervention.
We are taking four main approaches;
- screening of mice from an ENU (a powerful random point mutagen) mutagenesis programme for Diabetes, Obesity, fatty liver disease (NASH) and nephropathy.
- establishment of a sensitised ENU screen for diabetes mutants with insulin resistance.
- mapping and cloning of quantitative trait loci controlling blood glucose concentrations.
- Identification of mutations in candidate genes identified in human association studies.
