Sarah Finer

Professor @sarahfiner.bsky.social & Dr. @moneeza-ks.bsky.social joined @claudiahammond.bsky.social on #BBC World Service's Health Check! They discussed genetic drivers of early-onset type 2 diabetes in British South Asians & its impact on care.
Listen: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Delighted to showcase @genesandhealth.bsky.social and the enormous work of teams across settings. In this piece we highlight its role in diabetes & metabolism research.
authors.elsevier.com/a/1kAgM3jDgW...

@qmulfmd.bsky.social @sarahfiner.bsky.social #SouthAsianHealth #PrecisionMedicine

Thanks so much Wiebke!

Thanks so much for highlighting our work @doctorveera.bsky.social. And as always, your ability to distill key findings with such clarity 🧬🖥️

Hello Bluesky 👋 We are Genes&Health, one of the world's largest community-based genetics study improving the health of South Asian people. Join us in shaping the future of healthcare. Follow along to know more about how to volunteer, our achievements and the future of our research.

#academicsky #genesky #medsky 🧬 🖥️

>Last but not least

A huge thank you to our 64,848 volunteers and Community Advisory Board, funders and many partners for their incredible contributions to this work.

>What other work is Genes & Health doing on diabetes?

We are using genetic tools to study diabetes misclassification (when we confuse type 1 and type 2 diabetes), misdiagnosis (when tests like HbA1c go wrong). Soon we will also start work on monogenic and mitochondrial diabetes. Watch this space!

By using partitioned polygenic scores or these types of more standard clinical tests, we hope it is possible to develop more precise approaches to diabetes treatment, rather than the ‘one size fits all’ approach that we currently use.

>So do we need to use polygenic scores in the NHS?

Not necessarily. We can work out who has a genetic signature for low insulin production using a blood test called C-peptide, or unhealthy fat distribution by using a tape measure around the waist and hips.

>Ok, what else?

People with the highest risk of both low insulin production AND unhealthy fat distribution developed type 2 diabetes 8 years earlier, with a BMI 3mkg2 lower, and were more likely to develop eye complications.

>So what?

Good question! This isn’t just about satisfying our curiosity. Partitioned polygenic scores point towards ways to improve T2D treatment. People with a high genetic risk for low insulin production were less likely to respond to SGLT2 inhibitors and more likely to need insulin treatment.

2: South Asians have a higher genetic risk of unhealthy fat distribution – this means they are more likely to put fat in and around the middle of their bodies, and T2D is a known metabolic consequence.

1: South Asians have higher genetic risk for low insulin production – insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas to regulate blood glucose and with enough of it, our blood glucose can rise and lead to diabetes

>Why do some south Asians get T2D and GDM when they are young and slim?

Partitioned polygenic scores helped us shine a light on the specific reasons for this:

>Why do south Asians get more T2D?

Focus is often put on lifestyle factors. We find that south Asians have a greater genetic risk of T2D than white Europeans. So, lifestyle is important, but south Asians carry a greater predisposition from genetic factors that they cannot change.

Genes & Health represents 60,000 British Bangladeshi & Pakistani people, who are disproportionately affected by T2D & GDM. Our Community Advisory Group, led by Ahsan Khan, asked us to prioritise diabetes research Today we show our commitment to that, and this is what we found:

Genetic basis of early onset and progression of type 2 diabetes in South Asians Nature Medicine - In a cohort of 50,556 South Asian individuals, partitioned polygenic scores helped identify genetic susceptibility to insulin deficiency and unfavorable fat distribution as key...

It’s a big day for @genesandhealth.bsky.social @samcbhodgson.bsky.social @moneeza-ks.bsky.social Genes & Health, with @ Sam Hodgson, Moneeza Kalhan Siddiqui and I, as we publish our paper rdcu.be/d1vj0 on the genetic basis of #type2diabetes & #gestationaldiabetes (#T2D and #GDM) in south Asians. A🧵

Ok, folks, bear with us - this is the first video we're posting to BlueSky so the format may not be quite right... but it's Professor Sarah Finer and Dr Moneeza Siddiqui discussing their findings, so it's worth it!

Genes&Health, @samcbhodgson.bsky.social @sarahfiner.bsky.social & I are very pleased to share the 1st study using partitioned polygenic scores to understand age of T2D onset, GDM, lean T2D &💊response. All this in a south Asian cohort –typically under-represented in 🧬 research
@qmul.bsky.social