IDF Sharid

Diabetes, particularly that of type 2, represents, on a worldwide level, a growing problem and an unsustainable economic burden for the individual and society. In 2012, the global diabetes market generated $ 28.1 billion in sales, which is projected to $ 67.7 billion in 2022. It therefore becomes essential to identify biomarkers that enable identification of those at risk, advancement diagnostic procedures and the development of personalized treatment strategies. Recently, the understanding of the genetic and epigenetic contribution to the pathogenesis of diabetes has had extraordinary progress, in particular with new opportunities for epigenetic profiling.
and metagenomics. However, the development of low-cost technologies for the exploitation of this progress in the fields of prediction and precision medicine for type 2 diabetes is still in its infancy. IDF SHARID will use the genetic and epigenetic information available in the literature to create, design, construct and test a Lab-On-Chip (LOC) prototype able to identify specific elements of genetic and epigenetic variability associated with the individual risk of diabetes and placed to the intervention on the lifestyle. The design of the LOC will present an open architecture that will allow the adoption of further markers subsequently identified. In fact, a further integrated effort of this project is aimed at identifying a panel of innovative epigenetic, metagenomic and genetic markers for the quantification of the risk of diabetes and of the response to the intervention on lifestyle. The new biomarkers will be validated and tested to expand the LOC functions. At a later stage, the next-generation LOC will be adopted to design an innovative and low-cost interface (device) able to provide the interpretation of the data provided by LOC and molecular diagnosis. The availability of such a device will be able to advance the prediction from the current level based on questionnaires provided on an outpatient basis at a molecular medicine level through a wide range of applications ranging from the determination and quantification of the response to the exercise to the clinical prediction also on an individual level.