InterAct will:

• use data from an existing large-scale multi-cohort observational study to identify genes and lifestyle factors that interact in their influence on the risk of diabetes.
• bring together existing trials to test whether the success of lifestyle interventions on diabetes risk may differ according to an individual's genetic makeup.
• explore how the discovery of gene-lifestyle interactions may be used to develop strategies
• to prevent diabetes.
• investigate the implications of any new information for people at risk of developing diabetes, patients and public health organisations.

The InterAct consortium will construct a study of diabetes cases and non-diabetic controls within the setting of an existing large multi-centre cohort - the EPIC study.

EPIC comprises 350,000 participants from 10 European countries and will provide a case set of 10,000 individuals and a similarly sized control cohort free of diabetes.