Discovery of biomarkers for glycaemic deterioration before and after the onset of type 2 diabetes: rationale and design of the epidemiological studies within the IMI DIRECT

Aims/hypothesis The DIRECT (Diabetes Research on Patient Stratification) Study is part of a EuropeanUnion Framework 7 Innovative Medicines Initiative project, a joint undertaking between four industry and 21 academic partners throughout Europe. The Consortium aims to discover and validate biomarkers that: (1) predict the rate of glycaemic deterioration before and after type 2 diabetes onset; (2) predict the response to diabetes therapies; and (3) help stratify type 2 diabetes into clearly definable disease subclasses that can be treated more Mark Walker, Ewan Pearson and Paul W. Franks contributed equally to this work. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00125-014-3216-x) contains peer-reviewed but unedited supplementary material, which is available to authorised users. R. W. Koivula : P. W. Franks (*) Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology, CRC, Skane University Hospital Malmo, Building 91, Level 10, Jan Waldenstroms gata 35, SE-205 02 Malmo, Sweden e-mail: paul.franks@med.lu.se A. Heggie :M. Walker (*) Institute of Cellular Medicine (Diabetes), The Medical School, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, UK e-mail: mark.walker@newcastle.ac.uk A. Barnett : E. Pearson (*) Division of Cardiovascular & Diabetes Medicine, Medical Research Institute, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 9SY, UK e-mail: e.z.pearson@dundee.ac.uk H. Cederberg :M. Siloaho :M. Laakso Department of Medicine, University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland T. H. Hansen :H. Vestergaard : T. Hansen :O. Pedersen The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section of Metabolic Genetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark A. D. Koopman : F. Rutters :M. W. Heymans : J. M. Dekker Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VUmc, Amsterdam, the Netherlands A. D. Koopman : F. Rutters :M. W. Heymans : S. Rauh : J. M. Dekker EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VUmc, Amsterdam, the Netherlands M. Ridderstrale Department of Clinical Sciences, Clinical Obesity, Skane University Hospital Malmo, Malmo, Sweden M. Ridderstrale Steno Diabetes Center, Gentofte, Denmark Diabetologia (2014) 57:1132–1142 DOI 10.1007/s00125-014-3216-x