Thank you to everyone who attended the 2020 Annual Meeting & Research Discussion. We hope you agree that this year’s research update, led by Drs. Doug Melton (Harvard), Aaron Kowalski (JDRF) and Nicole Friedland, (JDRF Northern California), provided all of us with great hope that a world without T1D is within our grasp.

Nicole started the evening with an uplifting summary of the Chapter’s successes over the past year. She then highlighted some notable achievements by dedicated volunteers who work hard every day to drive JDRF’s mission progress forward.

Congratulations to our award recipients:

• Jennifer Dole & Earnie Franklin from VSP: Corporate Impact Award, NorCal Inland Community
• Dan Connors & Hans ten Cate: Volunteers of the Year, JDRF Game2Give
• Gabrielle Brits & Elena Lipkins: Board Members of the Year, Advocacy Chairs

Dr. Kowalski then provided updates on the state of our foundation, organizational restructuring during the pandemic, and JDRF’s continued efforts to fund the most promising research and advocacy work to ensure new therapies come to market and improve the lives of the T1D community.

Dr. Melton wrapped-up the evening by providing an inspiring update about curing T1D. His talk focused on the two main challenges of developing cures: 1) providing new beta cells and 2) preventing immune rejection. Dr. Melton argued that we’ve solved the first problem and then discussed how the new JDRF Centers of Excellence at Harvard and UCSF/Stanford will help solve the second.

We hope you were moved by these updates and we thank each of our supporters for playing your role to make this progress possible. If you were not able to attend the Annual Meeting, or would like to watch again, please click here or scroll down to view the recording.

We hope you are encouraged by these exciting advancements and will continue supporting JDRF by making a donation, signing up to be a JDRF Advocate, and/or registering for the virtual JDRF One Walk. Your efforts are what allow us to fund the most promising T1D research.

THANK YOU! YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE!