Special Diabetes Program: Consortia, Networks & Centers

The Special Diabetes Program has enabled the creation of unique, innovative, and collaborative research consortia and clinical trials networks to advance progress on the prevention, treatment, and cure of type 1 diabetes. These consortia, networks, and centers are programs funded to create communities of researchers focused on answering complicated scientific questions in the field of type 1 diabetes research. The goal of these large, high-impact research efforts is to promote progress in type 1 diabetes research that could not be achieved by a single laboratory.

These efforts span a continuum from basic research to identify promising therapeutic targets and agents, to pre-clinical studies testing agents in animal models, to clinical trials in people with or at risk for type 1 diabetes. These consortia and networks, as well as the research resources that they are generating, expand the scope and power of research efforts by making technological developments and tools available to the broad diabetes scientific community and beyond.

The research consortia, networks, and centers listed on this page are or have been supported, in part or full, by the Special Diabetes Program. For more information on these research programs and other research efforts, and the scientific accomplishments resulting from these efforts, please visit the Reports and Planning page.

Basic and Pre-Clinical Research Consortia

Beta Cell Biology Consortium (BCBC): The BCBC facilitated interdisciplinary approaches that will advance understanding of pancreatic islet cell development and function. The long-term scientific goal is to develop a cell-based therapy to restore normal insulin production and action to people with diabetes. Research resources available on the BCBC website include mouse models, mESC lines, antibodies, adenoviruses, genomic studies, data, and protocols. https://betacells.org/

Cooperative Study Group for Autoimmune Disease Prevention: This collaborative program supports research on the development of new prevention and treatment strategies for autoimmune diseases. http://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/organization/dait/pa ges/csgadp.aspx

Diabetes Research in Children Network (DirecNet): DirecNet was a multicenter clinical research network investigating the use of technology advances in the management of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents. Study information, protocols, datasets, publications, and slidesets are available on the DirecNet website. http://direcnet.jaeb.org

Diabetic Complications Consortium (DCC): The Animal Models of Diabetic Complications Consortium (AMDCC) has transitioned into the DCC. The DCC will continue to provide a nucleation site for interaction and collaboration among researchers studying diabetes complications. http://www.diacomp.org/

Diabetic Complications Consortium Preclinical Testing Program (DCC-PTP): The DCC-PTP provides investigators with access to pilot funds to pursue preclinical studies of promising new therapeutics. http://www.diacomp.org/shared/preclinical.aspx

Human Islet Research Network (HIRN): In 2014, the NIDDK established a new team science program, the Human Islet Research Network (HIRN), to organize and support collaborative translational research related to the loss of functional beta cell mass in type 1 diabetes. HIRN’s overall mission is to better understand how human beta cells are lost in type 1 diabetes, and to find innovative strategies to protect or replace functional beta cell mass in people with diabetes, emphasizing human disease biology, the use of human cells and tissues, and the development of reagents, tools, and disease-modeling platforms. http://www.hirnetwork.org/

Integrated Islet Distribution Program (IIDP): The IIDP processes and distributes high-quality human cadaveric islets to the diabetes research community for basic research. http://iidp.coh.org/

Non-Human Primate Transplantation Tolerance Cooperative Study Group (NHPCSG): The NHPCSG is collaboratively developing and evaluating the safety and efficacy of novel therapies to induce immune tolerance in NHP models of islet, kidney, heart, and lung transplantation.

Type 1 Diabetes Mouse Resource (T1DR): The goal of the T1DR is to enhance existing investments in animal models of type 1 diabetes research by facilitating the development and sharing of these unique resources. It provides a source for distribution of mouse strains related to type 1 diabetes and its complications to the scientific community. http://type1diabetes.jax.org

Clinical Research Consortia and Networks

Clinical Islet Transplantation Consortium: The CIT developed and implemented a program of single- and/or multicenter clinical studies, accompanied by mechanistic studies, in islet transplantation with or without accompanying kidney transplantation, for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. http://www.citisletstudy.org/

Collaborative Islet Transplant Registry (CITR): CITR is expediting progress and promoting safety in islet/beta cell transplantation through the collection, analysis, and communication of comprehensive and current data on all islet/beta cell transplants performed in North America. Annual reports with data from islet transplant programs are available on the CITR website. http://www.citregistry.org

Diabetes Research in Children Network (DirecNet): DirecNet was a multicenter clinical research network investigating the use of technology advances in the management of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents. Study information, protocols, datasets, publications, and slidesets are available on the DirecNet website. http://direcnet.jaeb.org

Diabetic Retinopathy Clinical Research Network (DRCR.net): The DRCR.net is a collaborative, nationwide network of eye doctors and investigators conducting clinical research of diabetes-induced retinal disorders. Resources posted on the DRCR.net website include datasets, policies, procedures, publications, and presentations. http://drcrnet.jaeb.org

Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (EDIC): EDIC is studying the clinical course and risk factors associated with the long-term complications of type 1 diabetes, using the cohort of patients who participated in the landmark Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT). See the NIDDK Central Repositories website for access to DCCT/EDIC resources: https://repository.niddk.nih.gov/studies/edic/.

Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes (GoKinD): GoKinD is a repository of DNA and clinical information from adults with long-term type 1 diabetes, with or without kidney disease. More than 3,500 participants provided blood and urine samples for biochemical and genetic analysis in the first phase of the GoKinD study. See the NIDDK Central Repositories website for access to GoKinD resources: https://repository.niddk.nih.gov/studies/gokind/.

Immune Tolerance Network (ITN): ITN is an international consortium evaluating therapies to reduce autoimmunity and other adverse immune responses by inducing, maintaining, and monitoring immunological tolerance in humans for islet, kidney, and liver transplantation; autoimmune diseases; and allergy and asthma. http://www.immunetolerance.org

NIDDK Central Repositories for Biosamples and Data: The Central Repositories store data and biological samples (including samples for genetic analyses) from significant, NIDDK-funded clinical studies, including several studies focused on type 1 diabetes such as DCCT/EDIC (Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/ Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications), DPT-1 (Diabetes Prevention Trial-Type 1), GoKinD (The Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes), and T1DGC (Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium). The purpose of the Central Repositories is to expand the usefulness of these and other NIDDK- supported studies by providing access to the biosamples and data to a wider research community beyond the end of the study. https://repository.niddk.nih.gov/home/

Search for Diabetes in Youth (SEARCH): The SEARCH multicenter epidemiological study is identifying cases of diabetes in children and youth less than 20 years of age in five geographically dispersed populations that encompass the ethnic diversity of the United States. http://www.searchfordiabetes.org

The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY): TEDDY has enrolled over 8,000 newborns at high genetic risk of type 1 diabetes and is following them until age 15 to identify environmental triggers of the disease. Information on TEDDY's sample and data sharing polices is available at: http://teddy.epi.usf.edu/research/.

Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC): The T1DGC organized international efforts to identify genes that determine an individual's risk of type 1 diabetes. See the NIDDK Central Repositories website for access to T1DGC resources: https://repository.niddk.nih.gov/studies/t1dgc/.

Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet: TrialNet is an international network of researchers who are exploring ways to prevent, delay and reverse the progression of type 1 diabetes. TrialNet offers risk screening for relatives of people with type 1 diabetes and innovative clinical studies testing ways to maintain insulin production before and after diagnosis. Information on ancillary studies is available at: https://www.trialnet.org/researchers.  

Standardization of Laboratory Measurements

C-peptide Standardization Program: Clinical trials of agents to preserve beta cell function in new onset type 1 diabetes use C-peptide as an outcome measure that indicates insulin production. This program aims to establish reliability in measurements of C-peptide.

Diabetes Autoantibody Standardization Program (DASP): DASP seeks to improve the measurement of autoantibodies in blood that are predictive of type 1 diabetes, and to decrease laboratory-to-laboratory variation.

National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program (NGSP): The purpose of the NGSP is to standardize hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test results to those of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial and United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study, which established the direct relationships between HbA1c levels and outcome risks in people with diabetes. https://ngsp.org/

Centers

Diabetes Research Centers (Diabetes Research Centers): Diabetes Research Centers support and enhance the national research effort in diabetes and related endocrine and metabolic diseases. Diabetes Research Centers support three primary research- related activities: Research Core services, a Pilot and Feasibility (P&F) program, and an Enrichment program. More information on research resources available through the Diabetes Research Centers is available at: http://www.diabetescenters.org/.

Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Centers (MMPCs): The MMPCs provide the scientific community with standardized, high-quality metabolic and physiologic phenotyping services for mouse models of diabetes, diabetic complications, obesity and related disorders. Using state-of-the-art technology and on a fee-for service basis, the MMPCs provide a range of complex exams used to characterize mouse metabolism, blood composition including hormones, energy balance and physical activity, eating and exercise, insulin resistance, organ function, metabolic fluxes and morphology, physiology, histology, and measures of diabetic complications in heart, kidney, vasculature, eye, and other tissues and organs. http://www.mmpc.org/

Last Reviewed May 2023