In a different study, we previously showed that blood-based DNA methylation biomarkers associated with future T2D and insulin secretion in prospective cohorts, mirror the DNA methylation pattern in human pancreatic islets37, suggesting that we may also be able to follow diabetes-associated expression and methylation changes in human islets based on epigenetic biomarkers in blood. The gene discussed is INS; the disease is type 2 diabetes mellitus.