It's funny that on a little rock in the North Atlantic we found a gene variant that has so much impact on the risk of heart disease in a totally different part of the world. We may look a little bit different on the surface but we are all part of the same family.

A common gene variant conferring elevated risk of (type 2 diabetes) has been earnestly sought by the genetics community for many years.

African-Americans who have this variant are almost certain to develop heart attacks. If you remove this gene variant from the population you would remove almost 20 percent of heart attacks in Africans-Americans.

It is a disease that occurs at the interface of genes and environment.

Importantly, virtually all of this risk can be captured by looking at a single-letter change in DNA - ideal for the development of a genetic test for assessing individual risk and developing more personalized and effective prevention strategies. This is also an exciting starting point for the discovery of new drugs, and we are actively pursuing the development of both diagnostic and therapeutic products to better prevent and treat type 2 diabetes.

This has turned out to be the disease that has been the most difficult for geneticists to crack, probably because of the large environmental contribution.