New York, NY – May 15, 2007 – Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the world's largest charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research, today announced the recipients of its second annual Scholar Awards. The award provides sustained support for individual scientists of extraordinary talent and creativity who pursue pioneering research toward finding a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications.
Among the researchers selected are Dr. Michael German, associate director of the Diabetes Center at the University of California at San Francisco; Dr. Anjana Rao, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and senior investigator at the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research in Boston; Dr. Pere Santamaria, director of the Julia McFarlane Diabetes Research Centre at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine, Canada; Dr. Ann Marie Schmidt, Gerald & Janet Carrus professor of Surgical Science at Columbia University Medical Center in New York; Dr. Markus Stoffel, professor of the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland; and Dr. Matthias von Herrath, professor of developmental immunology at La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology.
"The Scholar Award is designed to encourage and support innovative, high-risk and high-reward, paradigm-shifting, challenging research," said Richard Insel, Executive Vice President of Research, JDRF. "To fulfill its mission and find a cure fast, JDRF depends on the creativity and excellence of individual scientists."
The six scholars were selected for this prestigious award because of their ground-breaking ideas, unique research direction, willingness to take risks, and commitment to accelerating type 1 diabetes research. Each recipient will receive $250,000 annually for up to five years for their research.
About JDRF
JDRF is the world's largest charitable funder of type 1 diabetes research, and was founded in 1970 by the parents of children with juvenile diabetes - a disease that strikes children suddenly, makes them insulin dependent for life, and carries the constant threat of devastating complications. Since inception, JDRF has provided more than $1 billion to diabetes research worldwide. More than 80 percent of JDRF's expenditures directly support research and education about research. JDRF's mission is constant: to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. For more information on JDRF please visit www.jdrf.org.