Diabetes-Focused Nonprofit Is Pushing a New Way to Fund Startups

Type 1 diabetes, a condition that affects 1.25 million Americans, has seen its fair share of scientific advancements in the past few decades as researchers learn more about the disease, which affects the body's ability to monitor blood sugar levels.

But at the same time, those advancements haven't necessarily reached patients. So, JDRF the largest funder of type 1 diabetes research, started a venture fund called the T1D Fund to spark investments into startups that might be able to take those scientific advancements and turn them in to approved treatments.

"The research progress has been amazing, but what we're not seeing is the creation of a market," Sean Doherty, chairman of the T1D Fund told Business Insider. Venture capital, in particular, hasn't been very active in type 1 diabetes in recent years. "If we don't take charge of this, show leadership, nobody's going to."