The Finland-United States investigation of NIDDM (FUSION) study is a long-term effort to
identify susceptibility genes for Type 2 diabetes (T2D) and associated quantitative traits. This
involves the phenotyping and DNA analysis of thousands of individuals living in Finland, utilizing a study design that was originally based on affected sib pairs. The majority of these samples have already been subjected to a genome scan using microsatellite markers and the original FUSION samples. Additionally, thousands of other northern European cases and controls have been subjected to genome-wide association (GWA) analysis and/or fine mapping as part of the FUSION study. More recently, the opportunity provided by the lowered sequencing costs have allowed targeted and/or whole genome sequencing of many of these individuals.
