Since its founding in 1970 by parents of children with type 1 diabetes, JDRF has awarded more than $1.4 billion to diabetes research, including more than $101 million in fiscal year 2009. More than 80 percent of JDRF's expenditures directly support research and research-related education. In recent years, JDRF has driven a major increase in the number of new drugs and devices being evaluated in human clinical trials, funding more than 40 such trials in 2009. JDRF's Research Goals JDRF plays a unique role in setting the global direction of diabetes research resources, to ensure that funds are used as effectively as possible as a "cure enterprise" to bring about a world without diabetes and its complications. To that end, the organization has identified a set of cure therapeutic goal areas on which to focus its research funding efforts. JDRF believes some combination of these areas of research holds the best potential to lead to breakthrough cures and treatments for type 1 diabetes and its complications. JDRF will continue to actively pursue research within the framework of the following goals while remaining flexible enough to quickly respond to new opportunities as they arise: Immune Therapies: Stop the immune system attack on the insulin-producing beta cells. Beta Cell Therapies: Restore the body’s ability to make insulin through both the regeneration of insulin-producing beta cells and the replacement of the beta cells lost to diabetes. Glucose Control: Dramatically improve blood glucose control while avoiding dangerous highs and lows in people at all stages of type 1 diabetes. Complications Therapies: Free people from the devastating long-term complications of type 1 diabetes, including diseases of the eyes, nerves, kidneys, and heart Locally, JDRF is currently funding multi-year, multi-million dollar research projects at the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason, University of Washington, and the UW Institute for Systems Biology. For more information, visit JDRF International's web site.