Metabolic and Proteomic markers for Type 1 Diabetes

The main goal of the project is to pursue a comprehensive metabolomics and proteomic characterization of a prospective series of serum samples from a cohort of children in Finnish Type 1 Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP) study. The overall aim of the project is to identify novel biomarkers associated with the rate of progression to overt T1D by analyzing serum lipidomics and metabolomics and proteomics in DIPP participants.

Our previous findings indicate the existence of metabolic and immune system disturbances already prior to the appearance of first islet autoantibodies. Furthermore, the metabolic disturbances appear to be specifically associated with the progression to T1D. Our hypothesis is that multimodal molecular markers sensitive to early metabolic and immune system disruptions in T1D pathogenesis, as derived from metabolomics and proteomics, will provide more sensitive and specific tools than currently available for predicting the rate of progression to T1D.