Causes of early-onset type 1 diabetes: toward data-driven environmental approaches

A new study reveals distinctive metabolic changes that precede the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D), tossing a stone into the quiet waters of T1D immunology and genetics. The causes of these metabolic changes and their relationship to autoimmunity and beta cell destruction are not yet known, but the identification of a metabolic phenotype linked to susceptibility to type I diabetes may help pave the way to a new era of investigation of T1D causality.