Research

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AREAS OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION

JDRF's RESEARCH GOALS
JDRF has established a set of cure therapeutic goals to guide its research funding efforts.  These research goal areas hold the greatest potential to lead to breakthrough cures and treatments for type 1 diabetes and its complications:

• Autoimmunity: Stopping or reversing the immune system response that causes diabetes -- the attack on insulin-secreting cells in the pancreas.
• Complications: Understanding how diabetes causes complications, and developing drugs, treatments, and therapies to stop that process, or reverse the impact of the different types of individual complications.
• Replacement: Replacing cells killed off by diabetes with functioning ones from a donor -- similar to a heart or kidney transplant -- including increasing the supply of cells that can be transplanted.
• Regeneration: Regenerating insulin-producing cells in people who have diabetes (as opposed to transplanting cells from organ donors or other sources).
• Metabolic Control: Demonstrating that advanced monitoring tools might significantly improve the health of people with diabetes, and developing technologies that link insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors.

FY 2008 JDRF RESEARCH FUNDING
Autoimmunity:                       $48.5 million
Complications:                       $28.9 million
Metabolic Control:                  $15.2 million
Regeneration:                        $21 million
Replacement:                        $42.8 million

HOW HAS RESEARCH MADE A DIFFERENCE?

• People with type 1 are living longer than ever before
• The risk of complications is declining for type 1
• Tight control of blood glucose is more achievable than ever

More than $6.5 million has been provided to Colorado research facilities via JDRF fundraising activities since 2002.

For all the latest Research news, visit www.jdrf.org!