Our Charitable Partners:
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Dedicated To Finding A Cure
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (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 $107 million to such research in FY2010, bringing its total research funding to more than $1.5 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. In FY2010, JDRF funded more than 40 human clinical trials, several of which are in the advanced stages of clinical testing needed before government approvals 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.
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Therapeutic Areas
JDRF targets its research funding in two main areas:
Cure
Immune Therapies
This area focuses on ways to stop the immune system attack on the body's insulin-producing beta cells that causes type 1 diabetes. Within this area, JDRF is prioritizing antigen-specific therapies that would reverse the immune attack in type 1 diabetes without suppressing the entire immune system.
Beta Cell Therapies
This area aims to find ways to restore the body's ability to make insulin through the:
- Regeneration of insulin-producing beta cells (i.e. triggering the body to re-grow beta cells) and
- Replacement of the beta cells lost to diabetes
JDRF is prioritizing regeneration because of its potential to restore beta cell function in the largest number of people living with type 1 diabetes.
Treatment
Glucose Control
This area seeks to identify ways to dramatically improve blood glucose control while avoiding dangerous highs and lows in people at all stages of type 1 diabetes. JDRF is prioritizing the development of a closed loop artificial pancreas, a device combining glucose monitors and insulin pumps, to enable people to achieve tight blood sugar control and reduce their risk of complications. JDRF is also prioritizing the development of novel insulins that are glucose-responsive, faster-acting, easier to use, and more effective.
Complications Therapies
This area focuses on ways to free people from the devastating long-term complications that can accompany diabetes, including diseases of the eyes, nerves, and kidneys. JDRF is prioritizing research in complications protection, or new approaches to assess risk and block complications from developing and progressing. |
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Research Funding Facts
JDRF's mission is to find a cure for diabetes through the support of research. JDRF is also committed to developing new and better treatments that improve the lives of people with type 1 diabetes in the near term and keep them healthy while we advance toward a cure.
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Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, JDRF has funded more than $1.5 billion in research. In FY2010 alone, JDRF provided more than $107 million for type 1 diabetes research.
- More than 80 percent of JDRF's expenditures directly supportresearch and research-related education.
- In FY2010, JDRF funded research projects in 19 countries, including more than 40 human clinical trials.
JDRF's Research Goals
JDRF is committed to improving the lives of people with diabetes today and in the future. To achieve these goals, JDRF focuses on research that seeks to:
- Stop type 1 diabetes or slow its progression in people who are newly diagnosed
Reverse type 1 diabetes, and prevent or reverse its complications, in those who have lived with the disease for years
- Prevent type 1 diabetes in people at risk and in future generations
- Improve treatment of type 1 diabetes and provide better tools to achieve tight glucose control for people at all stages of the disease
FY2010 JDRF Research Funding
| Immune Therapies |
$32 million |
| Beta Cell Therapies |
$35 million |
| Glucose Control |
$23 million |
| Complications Therapies |
$17 million |
| Total |
$107 million |
General Diabetes Facts
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a chronic, debilitating disease affecting every organ system. There are two major types of diabetes: type 1 and
type 2.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a
person's pancreas stops producing insulin, a hormone that enables people to get energy from food. Type 1 diabetes usually strikes in childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood, and lasts a lifetime. Just to survive, people with type 1 diabetes must take multiple injections of insulin daily or continually infuse insulin through a pump.
Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder in which a person's body still produces insulin but is unable to use it effectively. Type 2
is usually diagnosed in adulthood and does not always require insulin injections. However, increased obesity has led to a recent
rise in cases of type 2 diabetes in children and young adults.
Taking insulin does not cure any type of diabetes, nor does it prevent the possibility of the disease's devastating effects: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputation, heart attack, stroke, and pregnancy complications.
The Scope of Diabetes
- Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes (8.3 percent of
the population) (1):
- Diagnosed: 18.8 million
- Undiagnosed: 7 million
- As many as three million Americans may have type 1 diabetes. (2)
- Diabetes currently affects 285 million people worldwide and is expected to affect 435 million by 2030. (3)
- In the U.S., a new case of diabetes is diagnosed every 30 seconds; more than 1.9 million people are diagnosed each year.
The Cost of Diabetes
- Diabetes is one of the costliest chronic diseases.
- In 2007, diabetes accounted for $174 billion in health care
costs in the U.S.
- Diabetes accounts for 32 percent of all Medicare expenditures.
- The nation spent $11,700 annually on each person with diabetes in 2009 compared to $4,400 on each person without diabetes.
- Americans with diabetes incur medical expenses that are approximately 2.3 times higher than those incurred by Americans without diabetes.
- U.S. hospital stays related to diabetes totaled $58.3 billion in 2007.
- An estimated 22 percent of hospital inpatient days in the U.S. were incurred by people with diabetes in 2007.
The Harm Caused by Diabetes
Damage to Many Organ Systems: Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, adult blindness, and non-traumatic amputations. It is also a leading cause of nerve damage.
Increased Heart Disease Risk: People with diabetes are two-to-four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than people without the disease.
Shortened Life: Diabetes kills one American every three minutes and is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. Life expectancy for people with diabetes has historically been shortened by an average of seven to 10 years, and the risk of death for people with diabetes is about double that of people of similar age without diabetes.
(1) CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/factsheet11.htm
(2) Type 1 Diabetes, 2004; KRC Research for JDRF, Jan. 2005
(3) IDF: http://www.idf.org/latest-diabetes-figures-paint-grim-global-picture
Type 1 Diabetes Facts:
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. While its causes are not yet entirely understood, scientists believe that both genetic factors and environmental triggers are involved.
Affects Children and Adults
Type 1 diabetes strikes people at any age. It comes on suddenly, causes dependence on injected or pumped insulin for life, and carries the constant threat of devastating complications.
Needs Constant Attention
To stay alive, people with type 1 diabetes must take multiple insulin injections daily or continually infuse insulin through a pump. They must also test their blood sugar by pricking their fingers for blood six or more times a day. While trying to balance insulin doses with their food intake and daily activities, people with this form of diabetes still must always be prepared for serious hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemic (high blood sugar) reactions, both of which can be life-limiting and life threatening.
Not Cured By Insulin
While insulin injections or infusions allow a person with type 1 to stay alive, they do not cure diabetes, nor do they necessarily prevent the possibility of the disease's devastating effects, which may include: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputations, heart attack, stroke, and pregnancy complications.
Difficult to Manage
Despite paying rigorous attention to maintaining a meal plan and exercise regimen and always injecting the proper amount of insulin, people with type 1 diabetes face many other factors that can adversely affect efforts to tightly control blood sugar levels. These factors include stress, hormonal changes, periods of growth, physical activity, medications, illness/infection, and fatigue.
Statistics
- As many as three million Americans may have type 1 diabetes. (1)
- Each year, more than 15,000 children and 15,000 adults – approximately 80 people per day – are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the U.S.(2)
Warning Signs
Warning signs of type 1 diabetes may occur suddenly and include:
- Extreme thirst
- Frequent urination
- Drowsiness or lethargy
- Increased appetite
- Sudden weight loss
- Sudden vision changes
- Sugar in the urine
- Fruity odor on the breath
- Heavy or labored breathing
- Stupor or unconsciousness
What is it Like to Have Type 1 Diabetes?
Ask people who have type 1 diabetes, and they will tell you: It's difficult. It's upsetting. It's life-threatening. It never goes away.
"Both children and adults like me who live with type 1 diabetes need to be mathematicians, physicians, personal trainers, and dieticians all rolled into one. We need to be constantly factoring and adjusting, making frequent finger sticks to check blood sugars, and giving ourselves multiple daily insulin injections just to stay alive."
— JDRF International Chairman Mary Tyler Moore
"This disease controls our lives with all the pricking of the fingers, shots, high and low blood sugars; it's like being on a seesaw. Without a cure, we will be stuck on this seesaw 'til the day we die."
— Tre Kawkins, 12, Michigan
"I never realized how much of my day would be spent dealing with this disease and all of its challenges."
— Patrick Lacher, 13, Connecticut
"A cure would give us freedom to carry on a normal life without taking a break to check our blood or have a snack."
— Asa Kelly, 16, North Carolina
(1) Type 1 Diabetes, 2004; KRC Research for JDRF, Jan. 2005
(2) NIDDK: http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/statistics/index.htm#i_youngpeople
Other Charitable Partners
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