India's First Diabetes Biobank

Why in News?

Recently, India sets up its first diabetes biobank.

• Diabetes Biobank – It is a repository of population-based biological samples.
• Aim – To facilitate advanced research on diabetes, variations of the Indian type and related disorders.
• Set up by – It is a joint collaboration of
  • Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
  • Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF)
• Operated at – Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai.
• Role – It is designed to collect, process, store, and distribute biological samples to advance diabetes research.
• Storage – A plethora of blood samples of different types of diabetes in the young, such as Type 1, Type 2 and gestational diabetes, have been stored for future studies and research.

Biobanks is a collection of biological samples (such as blood) and health information. It is critical in biomedical research, collecting, processing, storing and distributing biospecimens.

Diabetes

• Diabetes – A chronic metabolic disease that occurs when the blood glucose, also called Blood Sugar, is too high.
• Symptoms – Feeling very thirsty
  • Need to urinate more often than usual
  • Blurred vision
  • Feeling tired
  • Losing weight unintentionally.

• Types of diabetes

Reference

The Hindu| India‘s First Diabetes Biobank