About T2DGGI
The Type 2 Diabetes Global Genetics Initative (T2DGGI) has been established to bring together researchers undertaking genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of type 2 diabetes (T2D) to leverage genetics across diverse populations to better understand the biological processes driving the development and progression of this heterogeneous disease.
Our first GWAS meta-analysis, published in Nature in 2024 (Suzuki, K., Hatzikotoulas, K., Southam, L., et al. (2024) Genetic drivers of heterogeneity in type 2 diabetes pathophysiology), brought together data from 130 studies in a total of 2,535,601 individuals (39.7% non-European ancestry), including 428,452 T2D cases. Our study identified 1,289 independent signals for the disease, which we demonstrated could be partitioned into 8 non-overlapping clusters with distinct profiles of associations with T2D-related cardiometabolic traits. The clusters represent distinct biological pathways, including beta-cell dysfunction and mechanisms of insulin resistance, and were differentially enriched for cell-type-specific regions of open chromatin in disease-relevant tissues. Cluster-specific polygenic scores were differentially associated with coronary artery disease and end-stage diabetic nephropathy, highlighting the importance of obesity-related processes in the development of vascular complications and comorbidities.
The summary statistics for the 2024 T2DGGI GWAS meta-analysis can be found on the data downloads page.
The current participants of T2DGGI as of 2024 can be found here T2DGGI Membership.