Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory The JDRF/Wellcome Trust Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory (JDRF/WT DIL), centred in the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, is a multi-disciplinary research programme within the department of Medical Genetics at the University of Cambridge. The current director is John Todd FMedSci FRS and Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Cambridge. The goals of the JDRF/WT DIL are to identify and characterise the effects of the susceptibility genes for type 1 diabetes in order to better understand the earliest events in human physiology that lead to autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing beta-cells of pancreas. Other notable
Epigenetics of diabetes Type 2 Based on this study further investigation proved that if hypomethylation was induced, then the individual was far more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who led a healthy lifestyle. This proven presence of low methylation at certain sites could be used to diagnose diabetes 2 in individuals earlier in future treatment. Studies in 2011 have shown that insulin resistance (IR), the hallmark of type 2 diabetes, may also involve epigenetic control as a contributing factor. Promoter methylation of the mitochondrial transcription factor A(TFAM) gene, an important gene essential for mitochondrial DNA maintenance, was associated with IR in adolescents.