MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Minnesota has received a $40 million pledge for diabetes research from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation.

Goals for the funding, to be paid over five years, are to capitalize on the University's strength in diabetes research for a viable cure for people with type 1 diabetes.

"Curing type 1 diabetes is possible," said Bernhard Hering, MD, an internationally recognized diabetes researcher and co-director of the Schulze Diabetes Institute. "This gift is breaking big barriers by boosting resources, raising awareness and injecting a sense of urgency and responsibility."

Type 1 diabetes occurs in children and young adults when the immune system mistakenly destroys all insulin-producing islet beta cells in the pancreas. To stay alive and to regulate their blood sugar, patients rely on multiple daily blood sugar measurements and insulin injections. Even with rigorous disease management, they are at risk of developing deadly complications.

"We felt the time was right to choose a direction that would advance to a cure in the next five years," said Richard M. Schulze. "The University of Minnesota, its president and board are committed to collaborating internally and externally to make it the center of excellence it needs to be to accomplish this goal."

Through pioneering work by researchers from the newly named Schulze Diabetes Institute, the Stem Cell Institute, the Center for Translational Medicine and other University resources, three promising conceptual cures have been identified: human islet transplantation, pig islet transplantation and stem cell-derived islet cells. The Schulze gift will focus on specific efforts to implement these cures.

"This transformative gift enables some of the world's best minds to aggressively pursue a cure for a disease impacting millions of people worldwide," said University president Robert Bruininks.

The gift is the second largest in the history of the University and the second largest by an individual or family foundation to diabetes research in the United States. In recognition of the gift and the future of diabetes research, the University will rename its Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation the Schulze Diabetes Institute.