Connecting Science and Strategy to Eliminate Diabetes
Jeffrey Krischer
Distinguished University Health Professor of Pediatrics
Chief of the Division of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics,
Pediatric Epidemiology Center
Jeffrey Krischer believes that the elimination of type 1 diabetes for the next generation is more than a dream. It’s doable.
That’s because the internationally known leader in type 1 diabetes epidemiologic and preventive research sees connections other people don’t. “I believe that the right combination of science and strategy has come together to create sufficient opportunity to advance researchers’ understanding of the disease,” he says.
USF is at the epicenter of virtually every major, type 1 diabetes prevention study in the world. And, as chief of the Pediatric Epidemiology Center’s bioinformatics and biostatics division, Krischer leads the team that is coordinating and analyzing the massive amounts of data collected by researchers around the globe. “Every major effort worldwide to prevent diabetes involves our team at USF,” he says. “One day we could prevent this disease, and it’ll come through a partnership of USF and investigators throughout the world.”
A data coordinating and technology hub, the USF center received a $128-million grant from the National Institutes of Health to coordinate and analyze data from one of the world’s most important diabetes trials network, Trial Net, which studies prevention in high-risk subjects and treatment of newly diagnosed patients. The center has also received a $169-million grant to coordinate studies examining the causes of juvenile diabetes as part of an international study known as TEDDY (The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young).
The quantity of data Krischer’s center is coordinating and analyzing from these two global studies is massive. TEDDY will follow more than 8,000 newborns genetically at risk for the disease, screening more than 300,000 babies to reach that enrollment figure. More than one million samples will be recorded and tracked over a 15-year period. TrialNet will screen more than 150,000 children and adults to identify early signs of diabetes and investigate new therapies that may arrest disease progression.
These studies are but two of several that span the continuum of diabetes risk, prevention and treatment coordinated by USF. But while numbers are the bottom line for some, that’s not Krischer’s goal. His mission is personal — to help rid someone’s life of the suffering and pain caused by diabetes.
“At the other end of this stream of information, are the people whom we are trying to help.”
-- Mary Beth Erskine, University Communications & Marketing