the present invention relates to a novel dna assay for the diagnosis and / or prediction of autoimmune diabetes . the present invention relates to a dna assay for the prediction of autoimmune diabetes in human subjects , which comprises the steps of a ) obtaining a dna sample from the subject and amplifying at least one class iii allele of variable number of tandem repeats located upstream of the insulin gene which is associated with silencing of thymic insulin mrna expression ; and b ) subjecting the sample to electrophoresis to identify the silencing class iii allele .