New diabetes research collaboration

Nanogen Incorporated, a company that develops advanced diagnostic products for a number of different markets, has announced a collaborative agreement with the Finnish genomics company Oy Jurilab Ltd.
The aim of the collaboration is to ‘identify and validate’ new prognostic markers for the type 2 strain of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is far more common than type 1, and is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Type 2 is also often avoidable, and its rapid spread has been parallel to the rise of obesity caused by bad diet and lack of exercise .
Oy Jurilab Ltd. has undertaken genetic screening of an isolated population of Fins who live in the east of the country . This, they say, is one of the most genetically homogenous populations possible. In their research, Jurilab have identified markers in the population, and Nanogen will be given access to these as part of the agreement. Some markers could be indicative of the disease being developed, whilst others could be ways to protect against development .
The aim for both companies now is to validate whether these diabetes associations occur outside the Finnish population screened.