The raison d'être of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is finding a cure for juvenile, or Type 1, diabetes. A particularly severe form of the disease, it most often attacks children and adolescents but can also attack adults, making them insulin-dependent for life. Type 1 diabetes has been designated a strategic research priority of the Institute of Infection and Immunity, setting the stage for the continuation of a history of partnership with JDRF that began before the advent of CIHR. Helaine Shiff, founder of the Toronto chapter in 1974, is very familiar with that history. "We set the wheels in motion for the beginnings of partnership with, at that time, the Medical Research Council, approximately 10 years ago," says Ms. Shiff. She believes it was the first time the MRC had partnered with a not-for-profit organization.
JDRF, the world's leading non-profit, non-governmental funder of diabetes research, has raised more than $600 million for research on Type 1 diabetes. There are fundraising chapters and affiliates located all over the world, including Australia, Chile, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The "research business," as Dr. Concepcion Nierras refers to the evaluation of applications and dissemination of awards for researchers, takes place at the head office of JDRF International in New York.
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| (Photo courtesy of JDRF International) Dr. Nierras with JDRF colleagues. From left to right: Margery Perry, Chair, JDRF Lay Review Committee; Judy Hunt, Lay Review Committee member; Richard Furlanetto, MD, JDRF Scientific Director; Catherine Sigal, PhD, JDRF National Director, Research; Concepcion Nierras, PhD, JDRF Associate Director of Research. |
Dr. Nierras, JDRF International's Associate Director of Research, explains that although JDRF partners with both domestic and international organizations, Canada leads the partnership list in terms of funding commitments. "There's been understanding, enthusiasm and a willingness to work together. That has been the signature of our partnerships with Canadians." Dr. Nierras says there is a great deal of Canadian expertise in various facets of research on this disease, pointing to the Edmonton Protocol, a technique for transplanting pancreatic islet cells that appears to eliminate the need for daily insulin injections by restoring blood sugar control. The protocol was developed by Dr. James Shapiro and colleagues at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB.
An autoimmune disease, Type 1 diabetes is caused when the immune system destroys the pancreatic beta cells responsible for producing insulin. Without these cells, the body is unable to process glucose-it has cut itself off from its primary energy source. In its various guises, diabetes is a disease that can result in kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputation, heart attack and stroke.
Dr. I. George Fantus and Dr. David Hill are principal investigators for two New Emerging Teams (a CIHR funding tool created to support the development of new networks of researchers) supported by a partnership among JDRF, the Institute of Infection and Immunity, and the CIHR Institutes of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD) and Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH). Fantus says he's very happy to have received support from this partnership, for various reasons. "They (JDRF) want to fund science and research that will lead to better lives for people with diabetes," he says. In terms of JDRF's international peer review process, "They're.very highly regarded, and they use the highest standards in terms of their own scientists. They get the best people." And of course, "They bring money and professionalism to the table, and allow CIHR to do a lot more than they otherwise could."
JDRF's mission also affects the way researchers working with JDRF do their work, according to Dr. Hill. "We're very aware as investigators that the endpoints of the research are not simply producing scientific advances which are logged as high-quality papers, but that the sponsor agency is looking for information it can translate into a clinical cure for diabetes." This, according to Hill, makes investigators try harder than ever to perform the right experiment that will move the science to the point where it can transfer to clinical practice.
In addition to the partnerships supporting the New Emerging Teams, III also partnered with JDRF in support of a Stem Cells and Diabetes Workshop in March 2002, convened to bring together diabetes and stem cell researchers for discussions on applying stem cell technologies to the treatment and management of diabetes. Although the criteria for partnership vary from one project to the next, Ms. Shiff says "what is most important is for both parties to set and achieve goals that are mutually beneficial."
