Diabetes affects five percent of the Norwegian population and its prevalence is increasing epidemically. The disease is a great burden due to both its acute and long-term complications. The vision of the KG Jebsen Center for Diabetes Research is to uncover novel disease mechanisms in diabetes development and to establish tools for differentiating specific subgroups of patients, thus facilitating individualized care.

The Center will achieve this vision by integrating the findings from large-scale genetic investigations and model systems with clinical research. Diasykdomsgnostic tools will be developed based on genetic and non-genetic biomarkers, which will be validated in population-based data samples and processed for clinical application and dissemination.

Three major areas of research have been defined, which will provide a foundation for improvement in clinical care:

1) find new genetic risk factors for diabetes and its complications

2) reveal novel disease mechanisms in diabetes development

3) develop and implement improved targeted treatment of diabetes.