DEGS1 and diabetes mellitus: Initial data from animal experiments suggest that ceramide synthetic pathways may offer targets for drug development as inhibition of serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT) has shown to significantly reduce the development of atherosclerosis in a murine model (45–47); similarly dihydroceramide desaturase 1 (DES1) inhibition has proven to be beneficial in treatment of diabetes mellitus in mice (48).