Briefs

CAMBRIDGE, May 29, 2006 � Researchers at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) in the U.K. and the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle have created a new, web-based resource for type 1, or juvenile diabetes (T1D) research, which they used in identifying a sixth genetic locus associated with T1D. The locus discovered contains a gene associated with programmed cell death of virus-infected cells, and could be a link between noted cases of viral infection and the onset of type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is a childhood and young adult autoimmune disorder in which the immune system mistakenly kills off insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, leaving patients prone to complications such as blindness and kidney dysfunction later in life.

A team of scientists, led by Luc Smink, head of genome informatics at the CIMR�s Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory and Nathan Goodman at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), developed T1DBase, an open-source database that can be accessed and amended by T1D researchers world-wide.

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