# Assessing the Influence of the Human Lipidome on Risk of Diabetes in a Minority Population

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS RIO GRANDE VALLEY · 2021 · $563,496

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Type 2 diabetes is a major public health concern. Diabetes currently affects 25.8 million people in the US alone
and 90-95% of all cases are type 2. There are many complications related to diabetes, including a significantly
increased risk of heart disease and stroke, blindness, kidney failure and kidney disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver
disease, neuropathy, hearing loss and lower-limb amputations. There are several risk factors predisposing
individuals to the development of this disease including demographic characteristics like sex, age and ethnicity;
and behavioral and lifestyle-related modifications. In addition, metabolic determinants such as impaired glucose
tolerance and insulin resistance increase the risk of an individual progressing to type 2 diabetes. Significant
diabetes health disparities exist in minority populations, including Hispanics and African Americans, where
prevalence of diabetes is increased. Evidence from both epidemiological and lipidomic studies have shown that
specific lipoproteins and their constituent lipids are important factors in the development of type 2 diabetes,
where, like many other metabolic diseases, lipid metabolism is disrupted. The classical lipid parameters most
commonly examined in relation to disease risk are themselves complex entities composed of multiple lipid
species. We hypothesize that these basic lipid species represent intermediate phenotypes that lie closer to the
genomic level in the interplay between phenotype and disease, and therefore may be better predictors of disease
risk and increase the pace of discovery of genes causally involved in lipid variation and type 2 diabetes.
In this project, we will exploit whole genome sequence (WGS) information in powerful extended pedigrees of
Mexican American individuals in combination with comprehensive measures of the human lipidome, to identify
novel genes and functional variants influencing lipid variation and type 2 diabetes, in an effort to reduce the
diabetes health disparities evident in Hispanic populations. The combination of these precise biological lipid
phenotypes and WGS gives us an unprecedented opportunity to identify novel genes and functional variants
influencing human lipid variation and risk of diabetes. To achieve these objectives, we will (I) measure T2D risk
phenotypes including targeted lipid profiling of more than 800 lipid species; and multiple measures of metabolic
function, and perform quantitative genetic analyses; (II) identify sequence variation influencing lipid variation and
diabetes in all individuals using WGS; (Ill) perform hypothesis based replication in an independent Mexican
American population; and (IV) perform functional assessments of variants of interest in relevant iPSC-derived
cells and analyze free and total fatty acid content in a subset of the cohort.
The estimated economic burden of diabetes in the United States alone is approximately $245 billion per year,
making this disease of major p...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10142857
- **Project number:** 1R01DK127636-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS RIO GRANDE VALLEY
- **Principal Investigator:** JOANNE E. CURRAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $563,496
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-01-01 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10142857

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10142857, Assessing the Influence of the Human Lipidome on Risk of Diabetes in a Minority Population (1R01DK127636-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10142857. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*