JDRF is privileged to congratulate longtime JDRF-collaborator Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D., for being elected to the National Academy of Sciences, in honor of his pioneering work on the immune system. He is a leading expert on immune tolerance—inhibiting harmful immune responses while keeping protective ones intact—and how to activate or deactivate it, which has the potential to treat or cure autoimmune conditions, like type 1 diabetes (T1D), organ transplantation, and certain cancers. 

JDRF has funded Dr. Bluestone’s work since 1997, funding more than $20 million in his effort to find cures for T1D, including the development of teplizumab, which, last year, became the first drug to be approved by the FDA for the delay of clinical T1D, called Tzield™ (teplizumab-mzwv). Dr. Bluestone is also the co-founder and CEO of Sonoma Biotherapeutics, which has an investment from the JDRF T1D Fund to develop an immune modulator to preserve beta cell function and is the recipient of both the JDRF Grodsky and Rumbough Awards for his contributions to immune cell activation and immune tolerance.  

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Bluestone on one of the highest honors in science. 

Sanjoy Dutta, Ph.D.
JDRF Chief Scientific Officer