Research to Encourage New Projects Aimed at Advancing Current Disease Knowledge  

New York, NY, March 5, 2015 — JDRF, the leading research and advocacy organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research announced today a new research partnership with the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) and Eli Lilly and Company to establish a new research funding program to accelerate type 1 diabetes discovery and translational research. Each organization will contribute to supporting the new three-year research initiatives that spans the full breadth of the JDRF research portfolio and is aligned with JDRF’s research objectives.

“This new partnership is another remarkable example of the leveraging effect JDRF can achieve with our donor’s dollars when we co-fund research programs with outside partners. This allows us to increase the impact we are having on advancing our key research objectives,” said Richard Insel, M.D., JDRF’s chief scientific officer. “JDRF has a long history of valuable research collaborations with both organizations to accelerate T1D research and we are excited to move forward.”

A request for new research proposals to be evaluated by the partnership has recently been disseminated to T1D researchers. For the first year, the Program is particularly seeking projects in the following areas:

• Research with potential to increase understanding of the natural history, pathogenesis, and/or heterogeneity of human T1D
• Pancreatic beta cell biology and potential human beta cell regenerative approaches
• Pathophysiology of T1D autoimmunity with a focus on potential therapeutic targets and autoantigen-specific immunoregulation of T1D
• Therapies that slow or stop the progression of T1D before symptomatic disease or that preserve beta cell function in new onset T1D
• Biomaterials for implantable, encapsulated beta cell replacement
• Automated closed loop artificial pancreas systems and/or its components
• Novel or repurposed therapies to improve glycemic and overall metabolic control in type 1 diabetes
• Glucose-responsive insulin
• Therapies that prevent progression of diabetic kidney or eye disease in T1D

About JDRF
JDRF is the leading global organization focused on type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. JDRF’s goal is to progressively remove the impact of T1D from people’s lives until we achieve a world without T1D. JDRF collaborates with a wide spectrum of partners and is the only organization with the scientific resources, policy influence and a working plan to bring life-changing therapies from the lab to the community. As the largest charitable supporter of T1D research, JDRF is currently sponsoring $450 million in scientific research in 17 countries. For more information, please visit www.jdrf.org

Media Contact:
Christopher Rucas
212.479.7667 (office)
crucas@jdrf.org