Scientists at the University of Oxford - working alongside colleagues from the Babraham Institute in Cambridge and the Churchill Hospital, Oxford -  have discovered a gene called PTEN which they say is responsible for insulin sensitivity.  It is hoped that this new discovery could help find treatments with Type 2 diabetes as these patients have insulin resistance, and could lead to new drugs being developed that would increase insulin sensitivity. 

Dr Anna Gloyn of the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Oxford, and leader of the study, said:

"Insulin resistance is a major feature of type 2 diabetes."

"The insulin-producing cells in the pancreas may be working hard and pumping out lots of insulin, but the body's cells no longer respond."

"Finding a genetic cause of the opposite – insulin sensitivity – gives us a new window on the biological processes involved. Such understanding could be important in developing new drugs that restore insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetes."

While this new discovery shows some promise, the researchers advise that the best way of preventing type 2 is to keep your weight under control by exercising more and eating less.

Details of the study - funded by the funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council - have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.