JDRF International HQ

JDRF is the only global organization with a strategic research plan to end T1D. Our plan ensures that there will be an ongoing stream of life-changing therapies moving from development through to commercialization that lessen the impact of T1D. We want to keep people with T1D healthy and safe today until we reach our ultimate goal of a cure and universal prevention of T1D.

JDRF is funding research to transform the lives of people with T1D. We want a cure, and we won't stop until we find one. Along the way, we will continue to drive scientific progress that delivers treatments and therapies that make day-to-day life with T1D easier, safer and healthier. To achieve this, below are our programs:

Artificial Pancreas
We are working to provide technology that is small, user-friendly and accurate, so that people with T1D can get through the day without needing to check blood-sugar levels or dose insulin as often.

Beta Cell Regeneration
We have an ambitious goal—to restore the body’s ability to create insulin-producing beta cells in people with T1D. The JDRF Beta Cell Regeneration Program aims to both find and develop treatments that maintain the health and function of beta cells, and to discover and provide therapies to generate new beta cells.

Beta Cell Replacement
Thanks to recent advances, people with T1D could be freed from their blood glucose monitors and insulin injections for years, or even decades. The JDRF Beta Cell Replacement Program invests in research and clinical trials to develop and deliver life-changing therapies that place healthy, insulin-producing beta cells back into the bodies of people with T1D.

Complications
Despite advances that are giving people with T1D better tools to control their disease, those living with T1D are still at risk of developing serious health problems such as kidney, eye, heart and nerve diseases. The JDRF Complications Program focuses on diabetic kidney and eye diseases, two areas where we believe we have the best opportunity to make short- and long-term impact on people’s lives.

Glucose Control
Today’s insulin formulations save lives, but achieving tight control over blood-glucose levels remains a daily challenge for those living with T1D. The JDRF Glucose Control Program is committed to making the management of T1D much better and safer through groundbreaking research and clinical trials that aim to develop new ways to help people keep their blood-sugar levels within a healthy range.

Immunotherapies
JDRF is striving to accomplish a feat that has never been achieved before: permanently turning off an autoimmune response in humans. The JDRF Immunotherapy Program aims to turn off the deadly attack against beta cells that causes T1D. We power groundbreaking research and development of new therapies that will stop the autoimmune attack at its earliest stages.

Prevention
To eliminate the threat of T1D for future generations, the JDRF Prevention Program teams up with allies in academia, industry and government to fund groundbreaking research, and then translates this knowledge into therapies that can stop T1D from developing.

Advocacy
JDRF Advocates help build and sustain critical support for T1D research funded by the Federal Government by raising awareness among Members of Congress of the financial, medical and emotional costs of the disease.

JDRF is focused on bringing life-changing therapies from the lab to the community by impacting every stage of the drug delivery pipeline. Working the pipeline to expedite and sustain meaningful scientific progress, made possible by our donors, is the key to delivering progressively advanced therapies. This means:

- Driving research across the entire scientific and development spectrum, from discovery in the laboratory to delivery in patients
- Collaborating with public, private, academic and corporate partners to expedite delivery of real-world solutions
- Advocating for progress that will improve lives today and lead to a cure tomorrow

JDRF is uniquely positioned to create a future without T1D. We're driving progress from advances in the lab to therapies that positively impact everyone with T1D by:

- Partnering with academia, foundations, government, and industry to leverage our research investments
- Advocating to ensure that new therapies are both available and affordable
- Managing funds efficiently, which earned JDRF its 2012 designation as one of Forbes Magazine's Top 5 charitable organizations
- Harnessing the passion of our dedicated volunteers and donors

Collaborating with academic researchers, industry and other nonprofit organizations, JDRF has played a key role in nearly every T1D advance of the past four decades — including artificial pancreas, continuous glucose monitors, and beta cell biology.

In our quest to find a cure for T1D and improve the lives of those living with the disease, JDRF has transformed the scientific understanding of T1D. Since our inception, JDRF has helped create innovative treatments, kickstart new technologies, inspire innovative research and maintain a relentless focus on finding a cure for T1D. At every major milestone, JDRF has been was there as a funder, a partner or a catalyst.

Among the recent progress that JDRF-funded research has contributed toward include:

o In 1990, JDRF-funded investigator performs the first transplantation of insulin-producing beta cells into a person with T1D that keeps the person off insulin for two weeks. Ten years later, JDRF-funded scientists successfully transplant beta cells from donors into people with T1D. Called the “Edmonton Protocol,” the treatment is hailed around the world as a remarkable breakthrough in T1D research.

o In 2008, a JDRF-funded clinical trial demonstrates that use of a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) helps people with diabetes to avoid dangerous blood-sugar highs and lows. ABC News lists the discovery as one of the “Top 10 Medical Stories of 2008.”

o In 2015, a JDRF research team defines the early stages of T1D, including the stages before symptoms appear. With this system, we can intervene earlier in the disease process, with the aim to prevent the disease entirely.

o In 2016, the first artificial pancreas — a system that monitors blood-sugar levels and automatically provides the right amount of insulin at the right time — comes to the market. Nearly a decade earlier, JDRF invested millions of dollars into research and clinical trials to spearhead the effort to build and improve this life-changing technology.

o In 2018, through our advocacy and leadership, we drive other organizations, companies and governments to also invest in T1D research. In FY18 alone, we secured an additional $249M in federal funding for T1D research. So, for every $1 we invest, our efforts drive more than $2 additional dollars to T1D research. Because of JDRF, there is more money being spent today to find a cure for T1D than at any other time in history. No other non-profit organization raises, invests or drives more funding to find a cure for T1D than does JDRF.

Our mission is to improve lives today and tomorrow for the T1D community, and our current portfolio of supported research projects continues to focus on getting us to the day when no one has to suffer from this disease.