Peter Achenbach, M.D. Diabetes Research Institute Koelner Platz 1 D-80804 Munich Germany Tel.: +49 (0) 89 3068 5578 Fax: +49 (0) 89 3068 7509 E-mail: Peter.Achenbach@lrz.uni-muenchen.de Patricia W. Mueller, Ph.D. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Mailstop F24 4770 Buford Highway  NE Atlanta, GA  30341 USA Tel: 770-488-4015 Fax: 770-488-4005 E-mail: pwm2@cdc.gov Michael Schlosser, Ph.D. Ernst Moritz Arndt University Greifswald Department of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research Group of Predictive Diagnostics Greifswalder Str. 11c D-17495 Karlsburg Germany Tel +49 (0) 3834 8619178 Fax +49 (0) 3834 8680118 E-mail: schlosse@uni-greifswald.de Alistair Williams Bristol, UK Email: A.J.K.Williams@bristol.ac.uk Dr. Vito Lampasona Lab. Biologia Molecolare Clinica  2 Genomic Unit Center of Genomics, Bioinformatics and Biostatistics DIBIT2-Laboraf 3rd floor via Olgettina 60 20132 Milano Italy Tel: +390226432540 Fax: +390226434351 Email: lampasona.vito@hsr.it