Medical School News
U of M receives $40 million for type 1 diabetes research
The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation in December made a $40 million pledge to the University of Minnesota for diabetes research. The gift will capitalize on the University's strength in this field and aims to shorten the timeline for translating research into a cure for people with type 1 diabetes.
The gift is the second largest in University history and the second largest by an individual or family foundation to diabetes research in the United States. In recognition of the gift and the future of diabetes research, the University will rename its Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation (DIIT) the Schulze Diabetes Institute.
“We have the capacity to cure this devastating disease and help people enjoy a happy and productive life no longer constrained by diabetes and constant fears and worries,” says Bernhard Hering, M.D., an internationally recognized diabetes researcher and scientific director of the Schulze Diabetes Institute.
The Schulze gift focuses on specific efforts to implement a cure for type 1 diabetes through three promising concepts: human islet transplantation, pig islet transplantation, and stem cell-derived islet cells.
University researchers—world leaders in these areas—have had success reversing diabetes with human islet transplants, but because of the severe shortage of donor organs and the challenges of immunosupression, few people have benefited from this experimental treatment. The Schulze family's pledge will help the physician-scientists seek a cure by developing an abundant supply of islet cells and better and safer immunosuppressant techniques.
“The scientists... and their teams at the University have the passion, determination, experience, and knowledge to find a cure for type 1 diabetes,” says Schulze. “We felt the time was right to choose a direction that would advance to a cure in the next five years.”
