Two types of a highly variable disorder in which abnormalities in the ability to make and/or use the hormone insulin interfere with the process of turning dietary carbohydrates into glucose, the body's fuel. Type I is known as insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, and type II is known as non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, defines diabetes.

Related terms: dominant, gene, inherited, mapping, sex-linked, recessive.