Using Bioinformatics to Track Down a Rare Cause of Diabetes

Many people are aware of the main two types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. However, few people know that there are other types of diabetes. One type occurs in pregnant women (gestational diabetes), but there are others still. A rare type of diabetes is called maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY). MODY is frequently misdiagnosed as type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Different types of diabetes require different treatments, so determining the genetics of diabetes becomes important in developing and prescribing treatments.

In this module, students use bioinformatics to study a Norwegian family in which several members had MODY to better understand the causes of this rare genetic disorder and also to learn more about insulin.