Genetics of Type 2 Diabetes and Clinical Utility

A large proportion of heritability of type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been attributed to inherent genetics. Recent genetic studies, especially genome-wide association studies (GWAS), have identified a multitude of variants associated with T2D. It is thus reasonable to question if these findings may be utilized in a clinical setting. Here we briefly review the identification of risk loci for T2D and discuss recent efforts and propose future work to utilize these loci in clinical setting-for the identification of individuals who are at particularly high risks of developing T2D and for the stratification of specific health-care approaches for those who would benefit most from such interventions.