[Perspectives on postgenome medicine: Gene therapy for diabetes mellitus]

Several topics in diabetes research and practice in the coming 'post-genomic era' are described. 1) Insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells are a plausible target of gene therapy for type 1 diabetes mellitus. Functional genomics will reveal the mechanism of beta cell growth and regeneration. Attempts are being made to differentiate non-beta cells(including ES cells) into insulin-producing cells in vitro or in vivo. 2) Very recently, an intron variation in calpain 10 gene was found to be associated with type 2 diabetes, which confirmed the importance of SNPs in common diseases. More and more SNPs related to type 2 diabetes will be discovered and, in combination with pharmacogenomics, 'personalized medicine' based on SNP information of the individuals will hopefully be achieved.