Alexandria, Virginia - The American Diabetes Association invested nearly $30 million in diabetes research through four major grant programs last year according to the Association’s first annual report highlighting diabetes research efforts released today.
Together, the Research Programs 2014 Year in Review and the Pathway to Stop Diabetes 2014 Annual Summary Report noted that critical funding for the research necessary to improve health outcomes is shrinking relative to the increasing burden of diabetes in America. The National Institutes of Health spends an estimated $34.60 per person affected by diabetes on research, a level “grossly inadequate for the scope of the problem”. Limited diabetes research funding “threatens the research progress already made to reduce complicationsharmful effects of diabetes such as damage to the eyes, heart, blood vessels, nervous system, teeth and gums, feet and skin, or kidneys. Studies show that keeping blood glucose, blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels close to normal can help prevent or delay these problems.X and improve quality of life for people with diabetes,” and the Association’s commitment to research is “needed now more than ever” wrote the Association’s Tamara Darsow, Ph.D., Vice President, Research Programs, in an introduction to the 2014 Year in Review.
“More than a third of the U.S. population has diabetes or prediabetes, a trend that has been ongoing over the past two decades,” said Sam Dagogo-Jack, MD, President, Medicine and Science for the Association. “The Association’s Research Programs play a critical role in supporting diabetes researchers early in their careers and projects that are early in development. These investments ensure a promising pipeline of people and ideas for future breakthroughs in diabetes care, but a frontal assault on the epidemics of diabetes and prediabetesa condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal but are not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. People with prediabetes are at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes and for heart disease and stroke. Other names for prediabetes are impaired glucose tolerance and impaired fasting glucose.X requires a substantial increase in funding for diabetes research from all sources. Only through fundamental and applied research can we hope to prevent and cure diabetes and improve the lives of all persons affected by diabetes.”
In 2014, the Association funded 376 new and continuing research grants through four major grant programs: the Core Research Program; the Pathway to Stop Diabetes Program; the Research Co-Support Program; and the Collaborative Targeted Research Program. These programs supported 364 investigators at 143 leading academic research institutions in the United States, the report notes.
With help from philanthropic and corporate supporters, the Association helps launch the careers of those interested in diabetes research, recognizing that scientists have difficulty competing for limited federal funding.
“We know that without a strong, promising pipeline of researchers to make tomorrow’s diabetes research advances, we will never meet our goal to Stop Diabetes,” the “2014 Year in Review” states, noting that 98 percent of early career researchers funded by the Association remain in diabetes research, and 87 percent obtain subsequent federal funding to continue their work.
A similar drive to invest in early-career scientists and to cultivate innovative ideas from other fields for application to diabetes led the Association to launch the Pathway to Stop Diabetes program in 2013. The 2014 “Annual Summary Report” highlights successes over the first full year of the program and announces the six newest Pathway scientists, who were selected in January 2015.
In just the first year of the Pathway program, the report states that the scientists have made substantial contributions to the field, including two high-profile publications, one patent application and more than 30 scientific presentations. The Pathway program now supports 11 scientists pursuing collaborative, multi-disciplinary approaches and applying expertise from other fields to type 1 diabetesa condition characterized by high blood glucose levels caused by a total lack of insulin. Occurs when the body's immune system attacks the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas and destroys them. The pancreas then produces little or no insulin. Type 1 diabetes develops most often in young people but can appear in adults.X, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, obesitya condition in which a greater than normal amount of fat is in the body; more severe than overweight; having a body mass index of 30 or more.X and topics relevant to both type 1 and type 2 diabetesa condition characterized by high blood glucose levels caused by either a lack of insulin or the body's inability to use insulin efficiently. Type 2 diabetes develops most often in middle-aged and older adults but can appear in young people.X.
To obtain a copy of the Research Programs 2014 Year in Review, visit http://www.diabetes.org/research-and-practice/we-are-research-leaders/2014-research-year-in-review.html.
For a copy of the Pathway to Stop Diabetes 2014 Annual Summary Report, visit http://www.diabetes.org/pathway/news/.
