A STUDY led by the University of Oxford reveals how genetic differences in babies affecting their early growth could provide clues on curing disease.

The research – which shows that genetic differences between babies helps explain differences in their birth weight – explains how those same genetic differences provide an important link between an individual’s early growth and their chances of developing conditions like diabetes or heart disease in later life.

The study, which looked at the birth weights of more than 150,000 people, could help to target new ways of preventing and treating diseases.

Professor Mark McCarthy at the University of Oxford, and co-lead author of the paper, said: “These findings provide vital clues to the some of the processes that act over decades of life to influence an individual’s chances of developing diabetes and heart disease.

“These should highlight new approaches to treatment and prevention. Understanding the contributions of all of these processes will also tell us how much we should expect the many, wonderful improvements in antenatal care to reduce the burden of future diabetes and heart disease.”

The new study was jointly led by a team of researchers from six institutions including the universities of Oxford, Exeter, Bristol, Cambridge and Queensland, and the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam.

The research involved more than 160 international researchers from 17 countries who are members of the Early Growth Genetics (EGG) Consortium.

The paper, “Genome-wide associations for birth weight and correlations with adult disease”, is published in Nature on Wednesday September 28.