The Sanford Project

Identified as one of the greatest health concerns of our time, diabetes mellitus, also known as type 1 diabetes or juvenile diabetes, affects 500,000 to 1 million people in the U.S. today. In fact, the risk of developing type 1 diabetes is higher than virtually all other severe, chronic diseases of childhood.

Introducing, the Sanford Project. One of four initiatives made possible through T. Denny Sanford’s transformational $400 million gift to Sanford Health in 2007, The Sanford Project has one goal: researching and curing juvenile diabetes. A $10 million gift from Todd and Linda Broin of Sioux Falls, SD to fund the chair of the Sanford Project has accelerated our progress.

By focusing on this single, pressing healthcare issue, The Sanford Project can achieve more, assembling a world-class research team to explore new treatment technologies and beta cell regeneration, all in pursuit of a healthy future for our children.  

In 2011, the Sanford Project launched a groundbreaking clinical trial to determine if certain medications can rescue the few beta cells that remain soon after the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes; and whether new beta cells can even be regenerated.  Early research of Alex Rabinovitch, MD, Principal Investigator of the trial and Associate Director of The Sanford Project, supported by Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, led to the discovery of a treatment that can regenerate insulin-producing pancreatic islet beta cells and showed promise in type 1 diabetes in mice. The Sanford Project has begun a clinical trial (research study) to test this novel beta-cell regeneration in patients with recently-diagnosed type 1 diabetes.