AUGUSTA, Ga., Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A U.S. medical college has been selected to be the RNA laboratory for a worldwide study of the causes of children's type 1 diabetes.

   The Medical College of Georgia's Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine will isolate RNA and DNA from the blood of thousands of children involved in the study.
The researchers will eventually follow 8,000 at-risk babies from four states and three nations for 15 years, collecting blood every three months.

   The study -- called TEDDY for "The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young" -- will monitor many aspects of the children's lives with the goal of identifying environmental triggers that cause diabetes in children with known high-risk genes.

   "Once you know the risk factors, you can modulate the risk factors to prevent diabetes," said Dr. Jin-Xiong She, the center's director. He was among the scientists who conceived the idea of TEDDY and successfully applied for National Institutes of Health funding to pursue it in 2003.

   He recently was named principal investigator of the five-year, $5 million contract to isolate RNA and DNA from the regularly collected blood.

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