New York - May 21, 2007 -- The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the worlds largest charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research, will host the Global Diabetes Research Forum (GDRF) in St. Louis on June 1, 2007 as part of its annual conference. Leaders from the scientific, medical, non-profit, and academic research communities will gather to discuss the progress toward JDRFs implemented research strategies incorporating recent clinical trials and ground-breaking therapeutics to accelerate the cure for diabetes.
"The Forum is representative of JDRFs unrelenting commitment to our billion dollar global campaign to find a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications," said Arnold Donald, President and CEO of JDRF. "With each new development found through clinical trials and cure therapeutics, we move one step closer to making our efforts in research become a reality, allowing for major transformations in diabetes care until a cure is found."
The Forum will be moderated by Dr. Phil Needleman, who spent 25 years at Washington University School of Medicine where he served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, and will highlight the new frontiers in diabetes research by providing specific examples of how JDRF is at the forefront of developing novel solutions. Guest speakers include Desmond Schatz, M.D., professor and associate chairman of pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine, who will speak about the JDRF clinical trial on umbilical cord blood, and Quan Dong Nguyen, M.D., M.S., with the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital, who will discuss the collaboration of JDRF and Genentech on a drug called Lucentis, shown to be effective against diabetic macular edema, a major complication that often leads to vision loss, in clinical trials.
Additionally, the Forum will present findings on beta cell regeneration, a major component of JDRFs cure therapeutics goal to help restore the
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Contact: Brenda Cheung
bcheung@jdrf.org
212-479-7626
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International
21-May-2007