| Founder(s) | Lee Ducat |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1970 |
| Location | New York City |
| Key people |
Jeffrey Brewer, President and CEO; Mary Tyler Moore, International Chairman Robert Wood Johnson IV, Chairman |
| Area served | International |
| Focus | "To find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research."[1] |
| Method | Research funding Political advocacy Education. |
| Website | jdrf.org |
JDRF is the leading global organization focused on type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. Driven by volunteers connected to children, adolescents, and adults with this disease, JDRF is the largest charitable supporter of T1D research.[2] The goal of JDRF is to improve the lives of every person affected by T1D by accelerating progress on the most promising opportunities for curing, better treating, and preventing T1D. JDRF collaborates with a wide spectrum of partners who share this goal.
Since its founding in 1970, JDRF has awarded more than $1.5 billion to T1D research.[3] More than 80 percent of JDRF's expenditures directly support research and research-related education. Past JDRF research efforts have helped to significantly improve the care of people with this disease, and have expanded the critical scientific understanding of T1D. JDRF will not rest until T1D is fully conquered.
In FY2010, JDRF funded research projects in 19 countries throughout the world, including more than 40 human clinical trials.[4]
JDRF's largest fundraising event is the national Walk to Cure Diabetes. Events are held across the country to raise awareness about type 1 diabetes and raise funds to be put toward research.
JDRF's Children Congress is its premier advocacy event and is held every two years in Washington, D.C. Children ranging from age 4 to 17 are selected from each state to become their state's delegate in Washington.
JDRF funds research that is aimed at improving the lives of people with type 1 diabetes today and in the future. JDRF focuses on research that seeks to: stop or slow the disease’s progression in people who are newly diagnosed; reverse the disease and its complications in those who have lived with it for years; prevent type 1 in people at risk and in future generations; and improve treatments for type 1 diabetes and provide better tools to achieve tight blood glucose control for people at all stages of the disease.
JDRF research can be categorized in three main areas:
Cure, which includes:
Replacement and Regeneration Research (replacing or regenerating the beta cells that produce insulin)
Immune Research (reversing and preventing the immune system attack that causes type 1 diabetes)
Treat, which includes:
Artificial Pancreas Project Research (closing the loop between continuous glucose sensing technologies and insulin pump technologies)
Glucose Control Therapy Research (improving people’s lives by enabling them to maintain better control of their blood sugar by development of either new devices or therapies)
Complications Prevention Research (stopping or reversing the progression of complications in people with diabetes, such as eye or kidney disease—and treating these conditions in the people who already have them)
Diabetic Eye Disease Research
Prevent, which includes:
Prevention Research into the environmental and genetic causes of the disease. JDRF has both pre-autoimmunity and post-autoimmunity strategies aimed at minimizing and/or eliminating common triggers of the disease.
Currently, JDRF is funding more than 40 human clinical trials, several of which are in the advanced stages of clinical testing needed before Food and Drug Administration approvals are required.
Funding statistics reported by JDRF in November 2010
In 2006, JDRF launched a multi-year initiative in the United States to help accelerate the availability of an artificial pancreas to people with type 1 diabetes. An artificial pancreas will integrate two currently available technologies—continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps—with a software that provides the right amount of insulin at the right time. It will enable people with diabetes to achieve tight blood glucose control avoiding both highs and dangerous lows, thereby significantly reducing the risk of the disease's devastating complications.[6] JDRF’s Artificial Pancreas Project (APP) funds doctors and researchers across the world to advance this revolutionary way to treat and manage type 1 diabetes. In 2010, JDRF partnered with Animas Corporation to develop and test an artificial pancreas system.[7]
The Project’s main focus is on the development, regulatory approval, and acceptance of continuous glucose monitoring and artificial pancreas technology with the goal of making the technology accessible to people with type 1 diabetes in the shortest possible timeframe. JDRF keeps in constant communication with the Food and Drug Administration as it advocates for health care coverage of technologies such as continuous glucose monitors and works to ensure clinical acceptance of technologies such as the artificial pancreas.
The JDRF Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Trials Connection is an online customized clinical trials listing service. The “opt-in” portal helps people find information about and register for the latest type 1 diabetes human clinical trials throughout the U.S. (1)
The subscription service offers monthly emails with up-to-date information about newly launched trials, and contact information for the researchers conducting the trials of the user’s specified interest.
Anyone can register to use the Clinical Trials Connection website, using basic contact information. The user can then run searches for clinical trials specifically matched to an individual’s type 1 needs.[8]
In January 2009, JDRF documented a human clinical trial of an artificial pancreas. In the video, “Inside a Trial,” that can be found on JDRF’s Artificial Pancreas Project website, viewers watch JDRF volunteer Krys Bagwell as he admits himself into the hospital for an overnight trial.
Launched in 2004, JDRF's Industry Discovery and Development Partnership (IDDP) establishes partnerships with and provides funding to both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to accelerate the discovery, development, and commercialization of disease-modifying therapeutics and devices for the treatment and cure of type 1 diabetes and its complications.
As of November 2010, the IDDP has funded 35 partnerships with 29 companies and committed approximately $71 million to accelerate research that will lead to better treatments and a cure for type 1 diabetes.[9]
In accordance with the IDDP partnership stipulations, partnering companies receiving funding must provide their own project funding equal to or greater in value to JDRF’s contribution.
JDRF launched a new social network for people with type 1 diabetes on World Diabetes Day, November 14, 2008. The site, called Juvenation, has more than 18,000 active members. Site features include message boards, blogs, a video library, and educational resources about life with type 1 diabetes.
Juvenation was funded by an unrestricted educational grant from Novo Nordisk through its Changing Diabetes leadership initiative.[10] (1)
JDRF offers patients with type 1 diabetes and their families various outreach resources in the form of interactive online toolkits, as well as mail-order informational packets and kits.
JDRF volunteers are available to answer questions one-on-one via the Online Diabetes Support Team. The support team can be contacted using the online questionnaire found on the JDRF website, and users can expect to be contacted within 48 hours. Volunteers can answer general inquiries about type 1 diabetes resources, but cannot they cannot dispense medical advice.
JDRF has two main fundraising events that are open to public participation: The Walk to Cure Diabetes and The Ride to Cure Diabetes.
The Walk: Lead by Chairman, Nick Jonas. Individuals, families, or companies form teams to participate in this fundraising event. In 2010, more than 6,000 corporate teams participated in walks that took place in over 200 sites nationwide. According to JDRF, the walks in 2010 raised $85 million.
JDRF estimates that more than 500,000 people will participate in walks in 2011.
Corporate walk partners include: Advance Auto Parts, Delta Ford Motor Company, Marshalls, Old Orchard, Walgreens.
The Ride: Participants of all fitness levels may choose from one of five Ride locations and bike for their choice of distance (usually between 30 to 100+ miles) to raise money for JDRF. Riders commit to a fundraising minimum that is based on their Ride location. Riders, who come to the U.S. from around the world to participate, get expert coaching and training up to months in advance from USA Cycling certified coaches.
The 2011 JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes will take place in: Burlington, VT; La Crosse, WI; Lake Tahoe, NV; Death Valley, CA; and Tucson, AZ.
One of JDRF’s premier campaigns, the Children’s Congress aims to increase federal funding for diabetes research. Every two years, JDRF International Chairman Mary Tyler Moore and over a hundred children with type 1 diabetes gather in Washington, D. C. to meet with members of Congress and other top decision-makers.
The next Children's Congress will take place in 2013, in Washington, D.C.
Event history
The first Children’s Congress was held in 1999 and was inspired by an 8-year-old from Massachusetts named Tommy Solo. When a group of adult JDRF volunteers planned a rally in Washington, D.C., it was Tommy who suggested that the volunteers bring kids living with the disease to talk directly to members of Congress.
In 2009, the Children’s Congress received coverage in more than 300 media outlets throughout the country, including CBS' The Early Show, People Magazine, The New York Times, Washington Post, Fox News Channel, Associated Press, NBC News, and Scholastic Magazine.[11]
JDRF publishes various print and online materials with information and resources for the type 1 diabetes community.
JDRF publications:
The JDRF International is headquartered in New York City, at 26 Broadway (as of December 2009). There are JDRF affiliates in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. Its international spokesperson is Mary Tyler Moore, also a type 1 diabetic,[12] who appears in public service announcements for the organization.