Genetics of Type 2 Diabetes Among Han Chinese

This research protocol is designed to study the genetic basis of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) in Han Chinese. This project taking place at Suizhou Central Hospital complements several years of similar research activities conducted by Dr. Rotimi s lab in populations of the African Diaspora with study sites in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and the US. Suizhou Hospital was selected because of the existence of an excellent team of research investigators, infrastructure and more importantly, the availability of a large population from which to enroll and examine persons with diabetes and normal controls. Previous funding from Dr. Rotimi s lab at Howard University made it possible for Dr. Jiang and staff to enroll 1000 cases and controls. Therefore, the goal of the current project is to enroll additional 1500 cases of T2D and 1500 ethnically matched Han controls from Suizhou to facilitate the conduct of genome-wide association study (GWAS) and candidate gene/loci studies in Han, Chinese. The current project will increase the number of subjects for future GWAS, linkage disequilibrium (LD) mapping and functional studies to over 4,000 ethnically balanced cases (greater than 2,000) and controls (greater than 2,000). Identified candidate genes/loci will be investigated by re-sequencing and functional studies will be conducted to identify susceptibility variants for diabetes and associated complications including obesity, hypertension, nephropathy, neuropathy and retinopathy. Given past activities, it is also anticipated that this resource will form the basis of multiple collaborations between Dr. Rotimi s lab, several NIH intramural researchers and non-NIH scientists.