JDRF

About the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Dedicated to finding a cure
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) is the leading charitable
funder and advocate of type 1 diabetes research worldwide. 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 in childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, but lasts a lifetime. It 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.

Building upon research successes
JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1
diabetes research to date. In fact, JDRF funds a major portion of all type 1 diabetes research worldwide. JDRF provided more than $98 million to diabetes research in FY 2005,
and is responsible for more than $900 million in direct funding since it was founded.
Our research review process not only includes leading research scientists from around the world,
but also lay reviewers who either have type 1 diabetes or have family members with type 1 diabetes. This ensures that JDRF funds research with the greatest impact throughout the world, leading to results as soon as possible.

Moving research From bench to bedside
JDRF is driven by results and successes in three major cure goals: restoring normal blood sugar, preventing and reversing diabetes-related complications, and preventing diabetes.
Working toward these goals, JDRF has taken the lead in translating basic research breakthroughs into cure therapies in such areas as experimentation in islet transplantation, transplant
tolerance, beta cell regeneration, and diabetes prevention. The Foundation creates multidisciplinary programs that bring together diabetes researchers from many institutions and diverse disciplines
to find a cure for diabetes and its complications.

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 as soon as possible. More than 80 percent of JDRF’s expenditures directly support research and research-related education.
Because of its unwavering focus on its mission to find a cure, JDRF annually receives top rankings
from independent sources that rate charitable giving. JDRF leverages its research impact
by partnering with and stimulating increased research spending on the part of public and private medical organizations and other entities throughout the world.

A backbone of dedicated and active volunteers
JDRF was founded in 1970 by the parents of children with type 1 diabetes. As a result, JDRF
volunteers have a personal connection to type 1 diabetes, which translates into an unrelenting
commitment to finding a cure.
These volunteers are the driving force behind more than 100 locations worldwide that raise money
and advocate for government spending for type 1 diabetes research.

Research Funding

Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, JDRF has awarded more
than $900 million to diabetes research, including more than $98 million in FY2005.
More than 80 percent of JDRF’s expenditures directly support research and research-related education. In FY2005, the Foundation funded 500 centers, grants and fellowships in 19 countries.

Areas of scientific investigation

FY 2005 JDrF researCh FunDing

JDRF’s research goals
JDRF plays a unique role in setting the global direction of diabetes research resources, to ensure
that they are used as effectively as possible as a “cure enterprise” to bring about a world without diabetes and its complications. To that end, the organization has developed six cure therapeutic targets on which JDRF will focus over the next five years:
1. Perfecting islet transplantation without chronic immunosuppression
2. Creating safe and widely available “universal donor” supplies of insulin-secreting cells for
transplantation
3. Regenerating the body’s own beta cells without islet transplantation
4. Perfecting a closed-loop artificial pancreas
5. Creating novel therapeutics for predicting, preventing, and reversing complications, and
6. Maintaining or restoring immune tolerance in new-onset patients and those at risk for developing diabetes

From Research to Reality

General Diabetes Facts

Type 1 Diabetes Facts