Information from decades of international research on diabetes mellitus (DM), accumulated into an online library—or portal—is now available for open-access searching. The portal, a product of the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP), will include data from more than 100,000 genetic samples.
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Data can be searched by genes, gene variants, and genetic regions and can be cross-referenced with criteria such as glucose and insulin measurements. Data can also be sorted to include relevant genetic studies and the type of data collected. “The knowledge portal will allow us to translate differences in an individual’s genome into an understanding of how those differences affect a person’s risk of developing type 2 DM (T2DM). By harnessing the power of international data sets, we can also better account for differences in race, ethnicity, and locality,” said Philip Smith, PhD, co-chair of the AMP Type 2 Diabetes Steering Committee.
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The AMP, a public-private partnership, includes NIH, FDA, biopharmaceutical companies, and nonprofit organizations. It was launched in 2014 to, among other objectives, shorten the development time to new treatments in 3 diseases: Alzheimer disease, T2DM, and the autoimmune disorders of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. The overall 5-year budget is $229.5 million; the total project budget for T2DM is $58.4 million.