Our applications for type 2 diabetes research

Type 2 diabetes is characterized by disturbances across multiple metabolic pathways and typically occur years before the development of overt disease. Metabolic biomarkers help to define and characterize relationships that precede disease onset.

Nightingale’s comprehensive metabolic profiles from blood and urine can identify the metabolic disturbances associated with type 2 diabetes. Our detailed metabolic profiling has already helped fine tune the molecular profile of type 2 diabetes risk in numerous studies by highlighting new and emerging biomarkers. For instance, it has generated a compelling body of evidence to support the link between circulating amino acids and type 2 diabetes. Accumulating scientific evidence has shown that metabolic aberrations across multiple molecular pathways are predictive of the long-term risk of type 2 diabetes – even in young adults. 

Increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes poses a major threat to public health worldwide. There is an urgent need to develop tools for early identification of individuals at increased risk, and to monitor their metabolic health with an appropriate intervention plan. Current treatment strategies for type 2 diabetes patients are inadequate to stop the disease progression. Type 2 diabetes is a heterogenous disease with possibly several underlying patient groups with different complication risks. More research is needed to describe the metabolic signatures of type 2 diabetes subgroups and to evaluate the effectiveness of medical and lifestyle interventions in these different patient classes.