Charlotte Ling says: “The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is increasing worldwide. Therefore, there is a need to develop new treatment strategies for T2D. Recent genome-wide association studies were expected to find disease-causing mechanisms in T2D. Surprisingly, identified genetic variants only explain a modest proportion of the heritability of T2D. Novel studies are therefore needed to identify mechanisms causing T2D. These studies should focus on pancreatic islets, the tissue of primary pathogenetic importance for T2D. Also, mechanisms that allow environmental factors to come into play, such as epigenetics, are likely to be important. Our previous work has pioneered epigenetic discoveries in T2D. This proposal will combine novel sequencing technologies and epigenetic methods in human pancreatic islets with machine learning to develop new treatment strategies for T2D. We expect to identify novel candidates with a key role in islet dysfunction, that may be targeted for new therapies in T2D patients.”