Buoyed by recent advances in diabetes research, such as the cadaveric islet cell transplantation technique reported on page 750 , the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International (JDF) announced last month that it is to double diabetes research funding to $120 million for FY01.

The New York-based group convened an expert panel to review diabetes research and define new priority areas for JDF-funded programs. These include the identification of genes that predispose people to diabetes and its complications; studies aimed at extending the period between early disease diagnosis and its full manifestation; islet transplantation tolerance; stem cell therapy and β-cell expansion. Details of how to apply for JDF Special Research Grants can be found at http://www.jdf.org .

And in a continued effort to make its work international, the JDF announced a new, five-year, $7 million joint research initiative with the television charity Telethon Italia, to begin in April 2001. The initiative will fund multidisciplinary and multicenter Italian projects in genetics, immunology, islet transplantation and gene therapy. A joint Telethon/JDF scientific committee will review research proposals this October. Francesca Pasinelli, Telethon's director of scientific development, says “this is the first time that a US foundation is to support multicenter interdisciplinary work in Italy.”

In May, the group opened the JDF Center for the Prevention of Type 1 Diabetes at Turku University Hospital, Finland. The Center will receive $550,000 a year for five years to evaluate 20% of all newborn Finnish babies for their inherited risk of developing diabetes. The group also announced a $6 million collaboration with the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council to develop the first Type 1 diabetes vaccine. Similar partnerships exist with institutions and charities in Great Britain and Sweden.