Published Apr 03, 2026 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Apr 03, 2026 | 7:00 AM
India has more than 101 million people living with diabetes. (iStock)
Synopsis: MDRF has teamed up with Premas Life Sciences to strengthen genomics research on diabetes in India. The initiative aims to generate India-specific genetic data to better understand rising diabetes cases and unique disease patterns.
India has one of the largest populations of people living with diabetes, yet much of the genetic research guiding diagnosis and treatment comes from Western populations.
“India has over 101 million people with diabetes, and if you include South Asia and other developing regions, nearly 80 percent of the world’s diabetes lives in low- and middle-income countries. But more than 90–95 percent of genomic research is done in high-income countries,” said Dr. V. Mohan, Chairman of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), speaking to South First.
“So there is a big mismatch between where the disease burden lies and where the research is happening,” he added.
To address this gap, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) has partnered with Premas Life Sciences to expand genomics and multi-omics research in India.
The collaboration aims to build large Indian datasets and uncover genetic factors that may influence diabetes risk in the country’s population.
According to researchers, findings from Western populations cannot always be directly applied to Indians because several factors differ — including genetics, lifestyle, and diet.
“What is seen in the West cannot be directly translated here,” Dr. Mohan said. “The genes are different, the ethnicity is different, the age at which diabetes develops is different, and even diet and obesity patterns are different.”
He also pointed out that India currently lacks large-scale genomic data on diabetes. One challenge is that blood samples cannot be routinely sent abroad for such research due to government regulations.
Because of this, Dr. Mohan said India must build its own infrastructure to carry out genomic studies locally. That means creating large patient cohorts and testing them using advanced sequencing technologies within the country.
The new collaboration will bring advanced genomic sequencing technology from Illumina to MDRF, with Premas Life Sciences providing implementation and technical support.
Dr. Mohan said the research centre has installed one of the latest sequencing systems, making it one of the first clinical research facilities in India to use such technology in a hospital-linked setting.
While some specialised genomic laboratories in India have similar machines, he explained that using them within a clinical research centre allows scientists to directly connect genetic data with patient health records.
Researchers will not focus only on genomics. The initiative will also expand into other “omics” fields such as epigenetics and proteomics.
“We plan to do not just genomics but also other omics like epigenetics (the study of changes in gene expression that occur without altering the DNA sequence) and proteomics (the large-scale experimental analysis of proteins and proteomes) immediately, and in the future metabolomics and lipidomics,” Dr. Mohan said.
By combining genetic information with clinical data — including factors such as age, body mass index, blood sugar levels and cholesterol — researchers hope to create a rich dataset that can reveal new patterns in the disease.
One key goal of the research is to better understand forms of diabetes that appear to be more common in India.
Dr. Mohan pointed to the phenomenon of “lean diabetes”, where people develop diabetes despite being underweight.
“Most diabetes is associated with obesity,” he explained. “But we also see people who are underweight and still develop diabetes. We do not yet know why that happens.”
Researchers suspect that genetics could play a role in such cases, which is why deeper genomic analysis is needed.
Another focus area is gestational diabetes during pregnancy. Traditionally, gestational diabetes is diagnosed around 24 to 28 weeks of pregnancy.
However, doctors at MDRF are now observing cases that appear much earlier. Dr. Mohan said the team is studying what they call early gestational diabetes, which can be detected soon after pregnancy is confirmed.
Genomic studies may help determine whether early and late gestational diabetes are actually different conditions.
Another concern for researchers is the growing number of young people in India developing diabetes.
Lifestyle factors such as obesity, stress, sedentary behaviour and unhealthy diets are known contributors. But Dr. Mohan believes genetics may also play a role in early onset cases.
He explained that when both parents have diabetes, the likelihood of children developing the condition increases significantly.
“This suggests that genes play an important role, and identifying those genes could help detect risk earlier,” he added.
“In other ethnic groups scientists have developed what we call polygenic risk scores,” Dr. Mohan said. “But for Indians we do not yet have such scores.”
Developing such genetic risk scores for Indians could help doctors identify high-risk individuals earlier and potentially prevent or delay the onset of the disease.
The partnership also aims to strengthen genomics expertise in India through training and collaboration.
Workshops, hands-on training programmes and knowledge-sharing sessions are planned for researchers, clinicians and students to build capacity in next-generation sequencing technologies.
Dr. R. M. Anjana, President of MDRF, said the collaboration marks an important step toward advancing genomics-driven research in India and developing solutions tailored to the country’s population.
Dr. Radha Venkatesan, head of genomics at MDRF, added that integrating multiple omics technologies will help researchers generate more comprehensive datasets for studying complex diseases like diabetes.
Meanwhile, Praveen Gupta, Managing Director of Premas Life Sciences, said the partnership reflects a shared commitment to expanding access to advanced genomics technologies.
“Our focus has always been on enabling access to advanced genomics technologies and building strong scientific ecosystems in India,” he said, adding that collaborations between research institutions and industry are essential to drive innovation in areas such as multi-omics and precision medicine.
