When we launched the $100M Campaign to Accelerate, we wanted to ensure we maximized donor dollars to achieve the greatest impact. Through the Breakthrough T1D-CIHR Partnership to Defeat Diabetes, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) matches donor investments dollar for dollar, doubling the type 1 diabetes (T1D) research that can be funded.
Throughout the campaign, generous donors have stepped forward, allowing us to leverage even more funding. One of our incredible supporters, John Cammett, is matching all major donations to cure research within the CIHR partnership up to $2 million until the end of November 2025. The CIHR will match John’s contributions and yours, creating up to four times the impact for Canadians living with T1D.
“Like many people with type 1 diabetes, my goal is to take off my insulin pump forever,” says John, who has lived with T1D since age 32 and whose mother was also diagnosed at 32.
John has long supported Breakthrough T1D International and became a visionary funder of the Breakthrough T1D Barbara Dewey Cammett Center of Excellence in New England after meeting stem cell research veteran Dr. Douglas Melton at a Harvard alum event. John kept in touch with Dr. Melton and subsequently met several Breakthrough T1D-funded researchers, witnessing firsthand how each team brought an essential piece to the cures.
Dr. Melton and UBC’s Dr. Timothy Kieffer are two pioneers in stem cell research, having simultaneously discovered in 2014 the capability of stem cells to become insulin-producing beta cells, thanks to Breakthrough T1D donor funding.
Dr. Melton founded a company named Semma Therapeutics to further develop his cells, while Dr. Kieffer and UBC licensed the cells to ViaCyte for their early clinical trials. Vertex Pharmaceuticals later acquired both Semma (2019) and ViaCyte (2022) to create a robust T1D program. The ongoing Vertex trial has been yielding successful results, while Dr. Kieffer continues to optimize stem cell-derived islets with Breakthrough T1D donor funding and create them in a way that would reduce manufacturing costs and increase access and availability.
“Our goal is to develop made-in-Canada therapies for type 1 diabetes that are affordable and accessible, continuing Canada’s history of improving the quality of life of people with diabetes around the world,” Dr. Kieffer says.
Leadership gifts made to John Cammet’s 4X matching challenge will support Dr. Kieffer’s work, as well as projects led by:
- Dr. Megan Levings and team, whose work aims to rewire the immune system not to attack beta cells
- Dr. Francis Lynn and team, who are creating sophisticated, gene-edited beta cells from stem cells
- Dr. Patrick MacDonald and team, whose open-source database of islets is helping researchers worldwide advance their potential cure therapies
- Dr. Cristina Nostro and team, whose protocol for high-yield stem cell-derived islets is improving the future availability of these cell therapies
- Dr. James Shapiro and team, who are optimizing the seminal Edmonton Protocol to work for cell therapies (derived from the body’s own cells) that should not require immune suppression drugs
- Dr. Elizabeth Rideout and team, who are investigating how T1D presents differently in the male and female sexes
- Dr. Peter Thompson and team, whose research seeks to uncover why some beta cells work better than others, and now to harness those differences to create precision therapies
- Dr. Diane Wherrett and her nationwide team of 30+ multidisciplinary experts, who are piloting and establishing the groundwork for potential general population T1D screening in Canada – more relevant now than ever as disease-modifying therapies come to market that can delay disease onset
You can learn more about researchers funded by donors to Breakthrough T1D here: BreakthroughT1D.ca/research/meet-the-researchers/
Breakthrough T1D Canada is deeply grateful to John Cammett and all the donors who are making this research possible and bringing us closer than ever to closing our $100M Campaign to Accelerate ($14M left to raise) and, more importantly, to cures for T1D.
“Breakthrough T1D has the passion and track record to achieve its mission, advancing cures for type 1 diabetes,” says John. “The most defining feature between success and failure is good leadership. I am confident Breakthrough T1D will lead the world toward type 1 diabetes cures that will work for all who need them.”
To learn more or make a 4X match leadership gift, please contact:
Kim Lacombe
