The Broad Institute announced the release of a genomic map based on sequence data of Type II diabetes afflicted individuals and controls yesterday. The group will make the information accessible to scientists worldwide via the internet. The Diabetes Genetics Initiative is a joint effort of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Novartis (NVS) and the Lund University in Sweden. In 2004 the Broad Institute and Lund University formed the collaboration with Novartis to utilize the unique resources and contributions of each organization in studying diabetes and metabolic diseases.
Type II diabetes, caused by a growing trend of unhealthy diet and lackadaisical exercise habits, is a public health health problem that affects about 180,000 million children and adults worldwide. In-patient health costs for diabetes patients were $3.8 billion in the U.S. in 2001. The goal of making the data public is to encourage researchers from around the world to contribute to the significant effort of developing knowledge and treatment of the metabolic diseases.
-----------------------------------
Acronym Required previously wrote about diabetes in Diabetes. Heavy Living and Lite Reading, and Childhood Obesity, The American Way. We wrote about science data in the public domain in Accessible Research For All, By All- The Government, State, Universities and NGO's, and Dutch Research- Free!
