WATERLOO — The University of Waterloo will be the hub of a world-class network for diabetes research.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation announced Monday it picked the Waterloo university as the centre of a new clinical trial network established to develop new treatments and possibly a cure for the chronic disease.
The network is funded through a partnership with the research foundation and federal government announced last November. The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario is contributing $20 million and the foundation another $13.9 million.
“I believe we will achieve great success,” said Andrew McKee, president of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
UW’s expertise in computer science and data management will be the backbone of the network, while McMaster University will provide its experience in clinical trials. The next step is picking sites across southern Ontario for clinical trials.
“Collaboration is really key to this,” said University of Waterloo president David Johnston.
McMaster already has a presence in the community with its satellite medical school campus in downtown Kitchener, right next to the school of pharmacy.
McKee said the network will create upwards of 100 jobs within the network, most of them at UW.
UW will look after handling the data collected and coordinating the clinical trials, explained Ian McKillop, executive director of health research on campus.
“Clinical trials generate huge amounts of data,” McKillop said. Managing all that information “plays very well to our strengths.”
The network will start with trials in southern Ontario, and then spread across Canada. Information about diabetes research will not only be gathered, but also made accessible to keep everyone up-to-date about the latest work in the field.
“It provides a way to connect all these people across the country,” McKillop said.
Locating the network’s centre at the University of Waterloo will also attract talented people to the region to build on the local reputation for innovative thinking, he said.
Juvenile, or Type 1, diabetes is most commonly diagnosed in childhood and requires insulin injections several times a day because the pancreas produces little to no insulin.
Researchers are working on creating an artificial pancreas for those suffering with the disease. Also being developed is an insulin pump that works in concert with a continuous glucose monitor “so you effectively end up with a pacemaker for diabetes,” McKee said.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has raised more than $1.4 billion US internationally for diabetes research since its launch in 1970, including $101 million in 2009 for research being done in more than 22 countries.
jweidner@therecord.com