Capitol Chapter
JDRF Facts and Info
With your help, we are moving research from the laboratory bench to the patient's bedside, translating scientific advances into longer, healthier lives for those with diabetes. With your help, we are moving closer to our goal...a cure for diabetes and its complications.
Mary Tyler Moore
International Chairman
JUVENILE DIABETES RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Dedicated to Finding a Cure
JDRF is the worldwide leader in funding research to cure type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that strikes children and adults suddenly and lasts a lifetime. JDRF is the leading funder and advocate of type 1 diabetes science.
JDRF’s mission has been constant since it was founded four decades ago: to find a cure for type 1 diabetes through the support of research. Until a cure is found, JDRF is also committed to working tirelessly to develop new and better treatments to improve the lives of people who have type 1 diabetes and keep them as healthy as possible.
Today, people with type 1 diabetes rely on insulin to manage the disease. But insulin is not a cure, nor does it prevent the possibility of the disease’s devastating effects, which can include kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, stroke, amputation, and pregnancy complications. JDRF is dedicated to finding a cure for type 1 diabetes and removing the burdens and threats that the disease carries.
A Global Leader in Type 1 Diabetes Research
Many important developments in type 1 diabetes research have resulted from JDRF funding, as well as its many partnerships and public awareness efforts. JDRF funds more type 1 diabetes research worldwide than any other charity. JDRF directed nearly $116 million to such research in FY2011, bringing its total research funding to more than $1.6 billion since its founding in 1970. To ensure that it supports science with the greatest potential to produce results as soon as possible, the people who decide where to focus JDRF’s research funding includes leading scientists from around the world, JDRF’s team of scientists, as well as people who either have type 1 diabetes themselves or have family members with the disease.
Improving Lives Today and in the Future
JDRF-funded research encompasses type 1 diabetes at every life-stage: stopping or slowing its progression in people who are newly diagnosed; reversing it in those who have lived with the disease for years; avoiding or reversing complications; and preventing the disease in people at risk and in future generations. Areas of focus include developing immune therapies, replacing and regenerating beta cells, achieving tight glucose control, and stopping or reversing complications.
JDRF funding and leadership goes well beyond basic research. JDRF supports and exploits scientific discoveries and translates them into solutions, such as therapies and devices that can tangibly benefit people with diabetes today. Currently JDRF is funding 53 human clinical trials, several of which are in the advanced stages of clinical testing needed before FDA are required.
Efficiently Organized for Successful Results
JDRF is structured on a business-world model that efficiently and effectively directs resources to research aimed at finding a cure and developing new treatments as soon as possible. More than 80 percent of JDRF’s expenditures directly support research and research-related education. JDRF leverages its impact by partnering with academic institutions, governments, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, other disease organizations and foundations, and people with type 1 diabetes.
A Backbone of Dedicated and Active Volunteers
JDRF was founded in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes. Today, volunteers at JDRF’s more than 100 locations worldwide remain the driving force behind the Foundation’s success in advancing research toward a cure. Because of their personal connection to type 1 diabetes, JDRF’s volunteers have a passionate and unrelenting commitment to the JDRF mission.
For more information, visit the JDRF Web site, or call 800-533-CURE.