Welcome to the Florez Lab
The Florez lab aims to unravel the genetic basis of type 2 diabetes, related metabolic traits and its vascular complications, and provide the rationale for effective, precision-tailored therapies. The overarching goal is to bring the clinical treatment of diabetes and its complications into the new paradigm of molecular medicine, using genomic, metabolomic, experimental, physiological and pharmacogenetic approaches.
- help provide a more refined understanding of disease, both by dissecting its clinical heterogeneity and illuminating novel mechanistic pathways;
- offer a “proof of conceptĀ” for the role of selected genetic variants significantly associated with diabetes or related traits, by showing that experimental, behavioral or pharmacological manipulation of a particular gene pathway alters specific phenotypes in humans and other model systems; and
- contribute to usher in the era of genomic medicine, in which the practical utility of known genetic variants is demonstrated in the prediction of disease, prognosis of its clinical course, response to preventive or therapeutic options, and individual susceptibility to side effects.
From fundamental genetic discovery to clinical application
To achieve these objectives, our research covers the entire arc from fundamental genetic discovery to clinical application. Our multidisciplinary team focuses on the following set of activities:
Genetic Discovery
All genetic research starts with the discovery of a gene or a gene variant shown to be associated with a disease. The Florez lab actively contributes to such discoveries. Learn more here.
Functional Characterization
The road from genetic association to molecular mechanism is arduous. Once a genomic region is identified as relevant to disease, functional experiments are carried out in relevant model systems to understand how a nucleotide change leads to metabolic changes. Specific projects are described here.
Physiological Characterization
There is a further gap in understanding how discovered genetic variants or the molecular defect they generate affect human physiology. Some of the ways our lab is working to understand these relationships can be found here.
Clinical Translation
The Florez lab conducts many studies that have direct application to the field of precision medicine. Find out about these studies and how you can participate here.
To succeed on these goals, broad expertise is needed
Our diverse team is composed of basic biologists, human geneticists, statistical analysts, computational scientists, software engineers, clinical research coordinators, and physician scientists.
We collaborate with many colleagues around the world to advance the genetics of type 2 diabetes and conduct research that will ideally enable clinicians to personalize therapy to treat their patients.
Our group unites a premier academic hospital with a leading genomics institute, in a seamless arrangement that straddles both institutions. We are situated in the MGH Center for Genomic Medicine on the 5th floor of the Simches Research Building in the MGH main campus, and in the Diabetes Research Group of the Programs in Metabolism and Medical & Population Genetics , on the 10th floor of the Broad Institute.
