Decomposing population differences in type 2 diabetes through a high-resolution GWAS of ~600,000 individuals with East Asian ancestry.

A high-resolution GWAS of nearly 600,000 East Asians identified 196 loci for T2D, including three novel loci, with 74% shared causal signals across populations.

• Why it matters: Understanding genetic risk distribution for T2D across different populations is crucial because of its higher prevalence in East Asians and the limitations of previous studies focused mainly on Europeans.
• What they did: The study conducted the largest GWAS in East Asians with a direct comparison to Europeans, performing multi-ancestry fine-mapping to resolve 521 causal signals and analyze population-specific pathways.
• The result: Findings show population differences in regulatory and pathway contributions, especially involving pancreatic, lipid, and adipose pathways, and demonstrate that cross-ancestry risk scores improve prediction accuracy.