ANN ARBOR – Michigan Medicine has partnered with type 1 diabetes research nonprofit JDRF to establish the new JDRF Center of Excellence at the University of Michigan. The goal of the center, through U-M’s Elizabeth Weiser Caswell Diabetes Institute, is to accelerate research to cure type 1 diabetes and to improve lives. Ann Arbor resident Elizabeth Weiser Caswell and her father, Regent Ron Weiser, have made leadership gifts to kickstart the project. “Michigan Medicine is the ideal partner for JDRF,” Caswell said in a news release. “The JDRF Center of Excellence and the Elizabeth Weiser Caswell Diabetes Institute establishes us as one of the premier diabetes centers in the country—and the strongest in the Midwest,” Thomas Gardner, principal investigator of the JDRF Center of Excellence and EWCDI, said in a news release.

ANN ARBOR University of Michigan Regent Ron Weiser and his wife, Eileen, have donated $30 million to the university to bolster diabetes research and develop life-changing therapies. The research will be in collaboration with Michigan Medicine and other schools and units within the university. The gift will see the establishment of the Elizabeth Weiser Caswell Diabetes Institute, named for the Weisters daughter whose husband and two sons have Type 1 diabetes. Elizabeth has been a relentless educator and advocate for people with diabetes and for diabetes research, Regent Weiser said in a news release. This gift is transformational, Marschall S. Runge, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for medical affairs, dean of the University of Michigan Medical School and CEO of Michigan Medicine said in a news release.