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EDITOR'S NOTE: This news about a researcher in your city follows a national announcement distributed via PR Newswire earlier today. If you'd like more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:
Eileen Brangan Mell, National Manager, Media Relations, JDRF
Phone: (212) 479-7577, E-mail: ebrangan@jdrf.org
Meryl Rader, Erbach Communications Group
Phone: (908) 389-9804, E-mail: meryl@erbachcom.com
New York, NY, September 12, 2006 - The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the world's largest charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research, announced today that it has funded leading researchers around the world to participate in the JDRF Artificial Pancreas Project, which will assess new diabetes technologies and help accelerate their availability for patients. The first year's funding for this multi-year research program exceeds $5.5 million.
Among the researchers named were Michael J. O'Grady, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, National Opinion Research Center (NORC), University of Chicago, and Elbert Huang, M.D., M.P.H., Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago. Both will be participate in the Continuous Glucose Sensor Human Clinical Trial, one of the two research initiatives that comprise the JDRF Artificial Pancreas Project.
Continuous Glucose Sensor Human Clinical Trial
This large, multi-site clinical trial will compare outcomes of people who use continuous glucose sensors to those who do not, to quantify the benefits of these devices. Dr. O'Grady will serve as the trial's lead economic researcher. He will work with Dr. Huang to analyze and model the short- and long-term costs and benefits of patients using sensors.
Continuous glucose sensors read glucose levels on a minute-by-minute basis using a small sensor that is inserted under the skin and continuously transmits data to a hand-held device. These devices not only provide actual glucose readings, but also tell a patient whether their glucose level is trending upwards or downward.
Patients can adjust insulin dosing and carbohydrate intake to maintain control of blood sugar levels. Research has found that patients using continuous glucose sensors spend 26% more time in normal glucose range, and have statistically significant improvements in HbA1c levels.
There will be nine research centers in the clinical trial, each using the same clinical protocol. The variety of patient populations at these sites will test the effectiveness of sensors in various populations (including children and adults of various ethnic and socioeconomic groups) and different health care settings (including specialty diabetes care, managed care, and publicly funded clinics).
The trial will specifically investigate whether continuous glucose sensors have a direct impact on better glycemic control, reduced HbA1c levels, and hypoglycemia. But it will also explore the impact of sensors on other aspects of diabetes care, such as quality of life issues, for the children using the devices, as well as their parents. Data will also be collected to assess the economic costs and benefits of sensor use over the next 12 months.
Research sites include Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, Mass.; Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, Calif.; Nemours Children's Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla.; Roybal Community Health Center/University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif.; Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.; University of Colorado, Barbara Davis Center, Aurora, Colo.; University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa; Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; and the University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. The Jaeb Center in Tampa Florida will serve as the trial's coordinating center.
Artificial Pancreas Consortium
The other research initiative that comprises the JDRF Artificial Pancreas Project is the Artificial Pancreas Consortium will aim to speed and optimize the development of a closed-loop system (or artificial pancreas). This mechanical system will integrate a real-time glucose sensor and an insulin delivery system. The technology will enable a person with diabetes to maintain normal glucose and HbA1c levels by automatically providing the right amount of insulin at the right time, just as the pancreas does in people without the disease.
The consortium will work to develop various computer "algorithms" to communicate between the glucose sensors and insulin pumps. It will also investigate the safety and efficiency of the technology, such as whether insulin pumps can be shut off automatically during potentially severe hypoglycemic episodes. Studies will include children, as well as adults with type 1 diabetes. While the initial research will take place in hospital based clinical settings, the goal of the initiative is to eventually test artificial pancreas systems in everyday life settings, such as home or school.
Participating research centers include Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, Santa Barbara, Calif.; Yale University, New Haven, CT; the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA; Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, UK; Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. and University of Colorado, Boulder, Colo.
JDRF's Artificial Pancreas Project
To expedite the availability of rapidly emerging technology for people with type 1 diabetes, JDRF launched the JDRF Artificial Pancreas Project in late 2005. Through research and advocacy, the JDRF project aims to speed regulatory approval, health insurance coverage, and clinician adoption of promising new artificial pancreas technologies.
JDRF has made its Artificial Pancreas Project a priority because research confirms that current diabetes technology is inadequate: some studies have found that even patients who aggressively manage their diseasemeasuring their blood glucose an average of nine times a dayspent less than 30% of the day in normal range. The rest of the time, their blood sugar levels were either too high or too low.
According to Dr. Aaron Kowalski, Director of Strategic Research Projects for JDRF, "When a person has type 1 diabetes, maintaining an acceptable blood sugar level is a constant struggle. Tight control is very difficult for most, and as a result diabetes patients are suffering from severe and even deadly complications. The development of an artificial pancreas can revolutionize diabetes care because it carries the potential of eliminating these complications and easing the tremendous burden of diabetes."
"We believe that the new continuous glucose sensors will dramatically improve the ability of people with type 1 diabetes to control the wide fluctuations of glucose levels that, over time, lead to severe complications like heart attacks, kidney failure, amputations, and blindness," said Dr. Richard Insel, JDRF's Executive Vice President of Research. "These grants will help us better understand and quantify the benefits of technology-enabled glucose control, and take a big step towards an artificial pancreas."
Though JDRF is funding the Artificial Pancreas Project research independently, it is working with government agencies to accelerate the availability of these technologies to people with diabetes. In the last six months, 68 U.S. Senators and 244 U.S. Representatives signed a letter highlighting the promise of these technologies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said an artificial pancreas "could revolutionize diabetes care and management" and included it on its "Critical Path Opportunities List," and the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services held an expert panel to advise on future research using these technologies in the Medicare population. JDRF commends this leadership by the Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services regarding this emerging technology.
About JDRF
JDRF is a leader in setting the agenda for diabetes research worldwide, and is the largest charitable funder and advocate of type 1 research. The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. Type 1 diabetes is a disease which strikes children and adults suddenly and requires multiple injections of insulin daily or a continuous infusion of insulin through a pump. Insulin, however, is not a cure for diabetes, nor does it prevent its eventual and devastating complications which may include kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, stroke, and amputation.
Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, JDRF has awarded more than $1.3 billion to diabetes research, including more than $156 million in FY2008. In FY2008 the Foundation funded more than 1,000 centers, grants and fellowships in 22 countries.
