The lack of progress in our understanding of the true triggering factors of type 2 diabetes seems to be explained by a poor understanding of the causal relationships between the key disease processes such as hyperglycemia, insulin secretion, insulin resistance, beta-cell apoptosis, oxidative stress, inflammation, and endoplasmic reticulum stress, thereby complicating the pathophysiological interpretation of newly discovered biomarkers in the context of their associative or causal link to the disease’s pathogenesis. The gene discussed is INS; the disease is type 2 diabetes mellitus.