Identifying distinctive types of conditions like diabetes is helpful in two ways.

It means treatments can be personalized more precisely to individuals, and gives researchers a better idea of how to make those treatments more effective going forward.

When it comes to type 1 diabetes, there are two genetic patterns called HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4 that are associated with a higher risk of the disease. However, while the end result is the same (type 1 diabetes), the early signs differ between the two patterns.