Diabetes gene research may lead to new therapy

Genes are at the root of everything and I believe we'll eventually find that most diseases are traced back to our genetic blueprint.

- DR MIRIAM STOPPARD

And not just single genes but groups of genes - families of them that work in unison. This is good news because if families of genes can be switched on and cause a disease, presumably we can find drugs to switch them off and prevent or cure that disease.

Edinburgh scientists have identified nine genes that play a key role in increasing the risk of developing diabetes type 1 only four of which had been known before. Could this discovery lead to the development of new therapies to prevent and treat type 1 diabetes, which affects an estimated 400,000 people in the UK? Genes can act in two different ways.