DiabRisk is a blood test that can identify people at high risk to develop diabetes in the future. It is based on the analysis of protein glycosylation, which is not only biomarker, but functional effector contributing to disease development.
Global diabetes prevalence is approaching 10%, which means nearly every tenth person has type 2 diabetes – a result of the body’s ineffective use of insulin. Clearly, it is a common disease, yet every individual needs personalized care. People often underestimate the negative effects of high blood sugar levels, however, type 2 diabetes is a serious and progressive condition, that can lead to various complications, if left untreated. Curiously, six out of ten people have no symptoms, or don’t notice any, when their type 2 diabetes diagnosis is made. This illustrates the importance of knowing your risk and taking action. Lifestyle interventions can reduce risk and DiabRisk can be used to track changes in the individual’s risk to develop diabetes in the future.
Gordan Lauc
Dr. Lauc is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Zagreb, Co-Director of the National Centre of Excellence in Personalised Healthcare and Board Member of Genos. He is the author of over 150 research papers published in international journals and six international patents. His laboratory performed the first large scale studies of the human plasma glycome (in 2009) and human IgG glycome (in 2011), which were the basis for the subsequent large genetic and epidemiological studies of the human glycome that led to the creation of the GlycanAge index. Since 2015 he is also Honorary Professor at Kings College London.
Olga Gornik
Olga Gornik is an Associate Professor in the field of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry. Her research interests focus on the role of glycosylation in different pathological conditions and investigation of glycan based biomarkers, with emphasis on the diabetes. She was a PI on three diabetes oriented scientific projects that introduced glycans as tools for discovering predisposition for type 2 diabetes, diagnosis of young adult-onset nonautoimmune diabetes and understanding the development of type 1 diabetes in children. She published nearly 50 research papers in international journals and participated as a PI and a partner on several research projects.
Tamara Pavić
Tamara Pavić graduated as MPharm at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry and obtained her PhD in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. Her working experience includes public health-care and academia. She was a manager of the Seventh Framework Programme project „Integrating research in molecular life sciences at the University of Zagreb”. She is currently employed at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, as a postdoctoral fellow and experienced researcher. Her work is focused on the field of glycobiology, where she investigates the influence of environmental and genetic factors on N-glycosylation pattern in different physiological and pathophysiological conditions. The main emphasis of her research is monitoring the significant aberrations of the plasma glycome profile in different diabetes subtypes and the possible utilisation of marked changes as biomarkers and prediction tools.
Frano Vučković
Dr. Frano Vučković graduated Molecular Biology at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science in 2012, and obtained doctoral degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Zagreb in 2016. Since 2012 he is employed at Genos Ltd. working as a data analyst and a researcher in Glycoscience Laboratory. His work has been oriented on developing new models for integrative analysis of glycomics and other -omics data as part of MIMOmics and IBD-BIOM projects. His main research interest includes development of normalization and batch correction methods for high-throughput glycomics data. He is also involved in research of regulation of IgG N-glycosylation in autoimmune diseases. In 2013 he visited Polyomica Ltd. in Netherlands where he worked on modelling experimental variation using complex statistical approaches such as generalized mixed models and empirical Bayes methods.
Marina Martinić Kavur
Dr. Marina Martinić Kavur works in Genos as a researcher since March 2018 where she’s involved in several projects studying the immunoglobulin glycosylation in health and disease. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Master’s degree in Immunology and Physiology at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science. During her studies, she won a Dean’s award and 2nd place at the national level of Nesta FameLab competition for the young science communicators. Between 2012. and 2013. she worked as a young researcher studying the bone morphogenetic protein at the University of Zagreb, School of Medicine. In 2013. she was accepted to the international Vienna Biocenter PhD Programme (Vienna, Austria). During her PhD studies, she worked at the Institute of Molecular Pathology (Vienna, Austria) in the lab of Jan-Michael Peters, and she spent a part of the time in the lab of Jan Ellenberg at EMBL Heidelberg (Germany). Her efforts contributed to the generation of the first 4-dimensional map of proteins regulating human cell division, published in Nature. She earned her PhD degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Vienna in 2018.
Based on several research studies that included over 20,000 individuals, our team has constructed glycan-based risk score, which can identify individuals at high risk for type 2 diabetes development. Glycans are complex sugars attached to the various proteins in our blood plasma, that are highly responsive to the various changes in our body. By comparing glycan patterns between healthy people and patients with high blood sugar or diabetes, we were able to construct an algorithm for recognizing individuals at high risk. Glycan changes pointing to this increased diabetes risk presumably occur years before the presentation of the first symptoms, which enables you to take prompt preventive actions. Type 2 diabetes cannot be cured, however, it can be prevented or delayed by maintaining a healthy lifestyle – including regular physical activity, healthy and balanced diet, and maintenance of a normal body weight.
Key research papers behind the DiabRisk test: