Research Description
Type 2 diabetes is a threat to global health affecting disproportionally different ethnic groups. Prediabetes is an early stage in which plasma glucose levels are high but not as high as in type 2 diabetes. The number of individuals with prediabetes in need of treatment is substantial. The clinical manifestations of prediabe-tes can be treated to prevent their progression. However, there is considerable variation in the clinical man-ifestations and disease risk. The currently available therapies have also shown differences in the benefits among individuals. Therefore, there is a need to optimize the detection of individuals at high risk who will benefit more from treatments. Genetic data have been successful in classifying individuals with similar clin-ical manifestations. However, the biological bases of these differences remain to know, and the majority of these studies have studied European ancestry individuals. Plasma circulating molecules and gene expres-sion markers (plasma omics) can be a potential tool to identify the molecular markers of these differences. In Aim 1, will be created profiles of plasma omics from genetic data to characterize individuals with predia-betes from different ethnic backgrounds and Aim 2 will test the hypothesis that these profiles are associat-ed with differences in type 2 diabetes onset and complications. The results from this study will help im-prove our understanding of the mechanisms behind how some individuals can remain relatively healthy while others are susceptible to diabetes despite similar glucose levels.Research Profile
What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?My proposed project is part of precision prevention in diabetes research. In this project, we will characterize genetic-type 2 diabetes subtypes using information from small biological molecules present in the blood of the human body. This will help to understand why some individuals develop type 2 diabetes and complications, and why others do not.
If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?We will identify key biological molecules implicated in type 2 diabetes development. In the future, we can use these molecules to improve our treatments to prevent type 2 diabetes more accurately.
Why important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play?I am committed to providing substantial insights into the type 2 diabetes precision prevention field. This award will allow me to gain experience and preliminary data to advance in my career goal to establish research in transnational precision medicine for type 2 diabetes prevention in high-risk and diverse populations.
In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?I hope that we can understand better our differences as humans and how these differences play a role in disease manifestation. I see treatments focused on individuals instead of diseases. I foresee treatments targeting biological molecules that haven't been targeted before (metabolites or proteins).