Genetic variation in insulin-induced kinase signaling.

Individual differences in sensitivity to insulin contribute to disease susceptibility including diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Cellular responses to insulin are well studied. However, which steps in these response pathways differ across individuals remains largely unknown.

Polymorphic cis- and trans-regulation of human gene expression.

Expression levels of human genes vary extensively among individuals. This variation facilitates analyses of expression levels as quantitative phenotypes in genetic studies where the entire genome can be scanned for regulators without prior knowledge of the regulatory mechanisms, thus enabling the identification of unknown regulatory relationships. Here, we carried out such genetic analyses with a large sample size and identified cis- and trans-acting polymorphic regulators for about 1,000 human genes.