Novartis, Broad Institute to Study Genetics of Diabetes; Data Will Be Made Public

NEW YORK, Oct. 28 (GenomeWeb News) - Novartis' Institutes for BioMedical Research and the Broad Institute have partnered to look for genetic causes of type 2 diabetes, the groups said today.

The collaboration, called the Broad-Novartis Diabetes Initiative, will bring together physicians, geneticists, computational scientists, pharmaceutical researchers, and others to identify genetic risk factors for developing the disease and its complications.

Researchers will study thousands of DNA samples provided by Leif Groop, a professor of endocrinology at LundUniversity, a scientist known for his work on type 2 diabetes. Groop leads a team that "delineated the phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity of diabetes and maintains one of the world's largest and most detailed databases of information on diabetic patients," according to a statement released by Novartis and the Broad.

Lundwill help Novartis and Broad researchers design and analyze the research program. Their findings will be made freely available to scientists worldwide via the Internet, the partners said.