USF receives $169-million to study juvenile diabetes

TAMPA -- University of South Florida researchers have received a $169-million federal grant to study the causes of juvenile diabetes in children around the world, the university announced Wednesday.

The National Institutes of Health grant, awarded to a team led by Dr. Jeffrey Krischer, is the largest in USF history. Staff at six clinics in Europe and the United States will screen 360,000 newborns and ultimately track about 8,000 of them for 10 years.

The study seeks to explain why some children get juvenile diabetes, how their environment affects their risk and why incidence of the disease has doubled since the 1980s.

"We know that some children have a greater genetic risk of diabetes, but only 10 percent of those eventually develop the disease. This study gives us a large enough group of newborns to analyze factors in their lifestyle, diet or environment that may trigger the illness," said Krischer, who is co-chair of the study and a professor of pediatrics at USF Health.

Jacob H. Fries, Times staff writer