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Sanford Partners with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

In Pursuit of a Cure for Type 1 Diabetes

In its pursuit of a cure for type 1 diabetes, Sanford Health is partnering with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the world’s leading charitable funder of diabetes research, and a leader in the newly emerging scientific field of regeneration – the innovative focus of Sanford’s groundbreaking diabetes project.  This combination of a dynamic health care system with the major funder and pacesetter of diabetes research for more than three decades is unprecedented in diabetes science.  

A New Beginning

Sanford announced in June that type 1 diabetes would be a principal focus of the Sanford Project.  It was also announced at that time that Sanford would create a unique partnership with JDRF, which has funded more than $1.3 billion in diabetes research and has been a leader in setting the direction of science focusing on a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications.  Sanford Health and JDRF will identify opportunities to speed the pace of regeneration research leading to a cure, working together in the recruitment of researchers and the review of regeneration-related science that will establish the scientific platform for the project. 
   

Groundbreaking Science

Regeneration involves triggering the body to re-grow or regenerate insulin-producing cells in the pancreas (which are destroyed by the autoimmune attack that causes type 1 diabetes).  In the past few years, researchers have found evidence that insulin-producing beta cells can replicate or regenerate over time in healthy people, but not in those with type 1 diabetes.  Tapping JDRF’s experience and expertise in regeneration, Sanford will build a world-class basic and clinical research infrastructure to investigate how beta cells regenerate, and develop novel therapeutics that utilize regenerative medicine to restore beta cell function and cure type 1 diabetes, without the need for transplants (which carry a range of complications and problems, particularly for children).  Sanford Health’s diabetes translational network provides a unique opportunity to incorporate the clinical components of patient-oriented care with scientific investigation into the most promising and fastest moving fields of diabetes research. 

Decades of Progress Towards a Cure

Type 1 (or juvenile) diabetes is an autoimmune disease that strikes children and adults suddenly, and 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. The mission of JDRF is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research.
Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with diabetes, JDRF has funded more than $1.2 billion in diabetes research, including more than $156 million in the last year.  In that year, JDRF funded some 1,000 centers, grants and fellowships in 20 countries.  More information on JDRF’s research.

Regeneration is one of the five “cure therapeutic” areas in which JDRF research is focused.  In addition to reversing the immune attack that causes type 1 diabetes, the restoration of insulin producing cells – either by regenerating them or replacing them with working cells – is a key to a cure.  The foundation’s innovative Regeneration Team was the first to incorporate multi-center, multi-disciplinary team-science approaches to explore the early applicability and proof of concept of regeneration as a path towards a cure for diabetes.  JDRF’s portfolio of regeneration research has increased each of the last three years, and today includes the foundation’s first human clinical trials involving regenerative therapeutics.  JDRF is also a key advocate for NIH special funding for diabetes research, including regenerative science, and has successfully advocated for more than $1 billion in special diabetes funding over the past nine years.