Diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases worldwide, projected to affect 693 million adults by 2045. The current consensus for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is that high-quality diets and adherence to a healthy lifestyle provide significant health benefits. Remarkably, however, this consensus alone is not enough and cannot always predict the development of diabetes complications.
On the other hand, numerous genetic studies have demonstrated a clear genetic component to both diabetes and its complications. The explosion of new datasets, both in terms of biobanks and aggregation of cohorts, has more than doubled the number of genetic discoveries for both diabetes and its complications. On the same line, emerging evidence underscores the importance of gene-diet interactions in the improvement of glycaemic biomarkers of the disease.
In this workshop, evidence will be provided supporting the concept that we can achieve better glycaemic control in T2D patients by coupling Mediterranean diets to genetic information in a personalized manner. Furthermore, a case series of n-of-1 cross-over trials of T2D patients will be presented, who have achieved rapid glycaemic control when adhered to a personalized, genetically guided Mediterranean Diet. Finally, new emerging data concerning the development of polygenic risk scores for T2D will be discussed, that take genomic discovery to the next level of prediction and personalized medicine.