This represents a milestone for medical research.

In terms of the epidemiological risk of diabetes, this is by far the biggest finding to date.

Such understanding is required for researchers to develop new and much-needed approaches to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases, such as diabetes, bipolar disorder, cancer and many others.

Being directed down that pathway is very helpful.

We know that half of individual risk of most diseases is due to inherited differences in DNA sequences. Identifying genes that contribute to health is a remarkable opportunity for biomedical research.

I've experienced (more times than I like to admit) avoiding slightly uncomfortable conversations with others I should have had on the front end and then endured much more excruciating ones on the back end.