$30M Funding to Cure Diabetes Launched to Experts in Perth
September 5, 2005

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation will launch a $30 million Islet Transplant Program in Perth this week to an audience of Australia's best diabetes scientists, researchers, educators and endocrinologists.

The Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian Diabetes Society/Australian Diabetes Educators Association (7-9 September) will bring attendees up to date with exciting progress in the search for a cure for diabetes. At the conference, JDRF will launch the $30 million Islet Transplant Program. The program, a partnership with the Federal Government, aims to take islet cell transplantation from an experimental procedure to a real clinical option for people with type 1 diabetes.

Research into possible causes, treatments and cures for diabetes is becoming more important. Research results from the Children's Hospital at Westmead, published in the current issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, show the incidence of type 1 diabetes in NSW rose on average by almost three per cent each year between 1990 and 2002. From 1990 to 2002, 3260 children under 15 years of age were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. A similar study, published in Diabetologia in 2004, showed that incidence in Western Australia had more than doubled in the period from 1985 to 2002.

CEO of JDRF, Mike Wilson, said, "Type 1 diabetes is an incurable chronic disease, affecting 140,000 Australians, which leaves people dependent on multiple daily injections of insulin to survive. In untreated diabetes, the body literally starves because it is no longer able to produce the insulin it needs to process food. Islet transplantation is an extremely promising step towards finding a cure for type 1 diabetes."

Mike Wilson will announce the details of the program and funding at this week's conference. Associate Professor Phil O'Connell will also present, along with other national and international islet transplant experts. A/Prof O'Connell has performed the only human islet transplants in Australia to date. The six recipients now live without daily injections of insulin and have greater blood glucose control.

Islet transplantation involves transplanting islet cells, which contain critical insulin-producing beta cells, into the liver. In comparison to transplanting a whole pancreas, islet transplantation is a simpler and less invasive procedure.

For further information about JDRF and the Islet Transplant Program, visit www.jdrf.org.au. You can support JDRF and help to find a cure for type 1 diabetes by taking part in Walk to Cure Diabetes on 16 October 2005. Register at www.jdrf.org.au/walk or call 1300 363 126.

ENDS

For further information or to arrange an interview with Mike Wilson or Phil O'Connell:

Karolyn Andrews, Media & PR Manager, JDRF
Ph. 02 9966 0400 (x203) or 0403 787 077 | email: kandrews@jdrf.org.au

About JDRF:

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is the world's largest not-for-profit supporter of diabetes research, investing $130 million in the search to find a cure for type 1 diabetes each year. JDRF was founded in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, a disease which strikes people suddenly, makes them dependent on multiple daily injections of insulin to survive and at risk of devastating health complications like blindness, kidney failure, heart disease and amputation.