The Hong Kong Diabetes Biobank

Plain-language summary

Asia is in the midst of an epidemic of diabetes. Epidemiological figures suggest that there are more than 110 million people affected by diabetes in China, with a significant proportion of young adults already affected. With increasingly young age of onset, the financial implications due to productivity loss and health care expenditures are colossal. As a result, prevention of diabetes and diabetic complications has been identified as a top healthcare priority in China. In Chinese, diabetic kidney disease with albuminuria, which reflects widespread vascular damage, is a major predictor for end-stage renal failure, cardiovascular complications and death, and a major contributor to the increased healthcare burden associated with diabetes. There is an immense demand for effective tools which can accurately predict diabetes and diabetic complications. Only few genetic factors have been consistently shown to be associated with diabetic kidney disease or other diabetic complications. Identification of genetic factors or other biomarkers predicting these complications can facilitate early identification of high risk subjects for treatment, as well as provide novel targets for drug treatment. To address this, the investigators plan to utilize both hypothesis-generating whole-genome approach as well as candidate gene-based studies to identify novel genetic, epigenetic factors as well as other biomarkers associated with the development of diabetic cardiovascular and renal complications, as well as other diabetes-related outcomes. The Hong Kong Diabetes Biobank (HKDB) is being established in order to serve as a territory-wide diabetes register and biobank for epidemiological analyses, as well as large-scale discovery and replication of genetic and epigenetic markers, and other biomarkers relating to diabetes, diabetes complications or related outcomes. Subjects will be recruited from diabetes centres across Hong Kong, and will have detailed clinical information collected at the time of written consent and blood taking. Subjects will have detailed assessment of baseline diabetes complications through a structured clinical assessment, and will be prospectively followed up for development of different diabetes-related endpoints, as well as collection of clinical information and causes of hospitalization, along with information on medications and prescription records. This multi-centre cohort and biobank aims to improve our understanding of the epidemiology of diabetes and diabetes complications and related outcomes, as well as provide a unique resource for large-scale biomarker research to advance diabetes care and precision medicine in diabetes.

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