- Robertson, Catherine C;
- Inshaw, Jamie RJ;
- Onengut-Gumuscu, Suna;
- Chen, Wei-Min;
- Santa Cruz, David Flores;
- Yang, Hanzhi;
- Cutler, Antony J;
- Crouch, Daniel JM;
- Farber, Emily;
- Bridges, S Louis;
- Edberg, Jeffrey C;
- Kimberly, Robert P;
- Buckner, Jane H;
- Deloukas, Panos;
- Divers, Jasmin;
- Dabelea, Dana;
- Lawrence, Jean M;
- Marcovina, Santica;
- Shah, Amy S;
- Greenbaum, Carla J;
- Atkinson, Mark A;
- Gregersen, Peter K;
- Oksenberg, Jorge R;
- Pociot, Flemming;
- Rewers, Marian J;
- Steck, Andrea K;
- Dunger, David B;
- Wicker, Linda S;
- Concannon, Patrick;
- Todd, John A;
- Rich, Stephen S
We report the largest and most diverse genetic study of type 1 diabetes (T1D) to date (61,427 participants), yielding 78 genome-wide-significant (P < 5 × 10-8) regions, including 36 that are new. We define credible sets of T1D-associated variants and show that they are enriched in immune-cell accessible chromatin, particularly CD4+ effector T cells. Using chromatin-accessibility profiling of CD4+ T cells from 115 individuals, we map chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci and identify five regions where T1D risk variants co-localize with chromatin-accessibility quantitative trait loci. We highlight rs72928038 in BACH2 as a candidate causal T1D variant leading to decreased enhancer accessibility and BACH2 expression in T cells. Finally, we prioritize potential drug targets by integrating genetic evidence, functional genomic maps and immune protein-protein interactions, identifying 12 genes implicated in T1D that have been targeted in clinical trials for autoimmune diseases. These findings provide an expanded genomic landscape for T1D.