RESEARCH
When a group of parents started the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 1955, they set their sights high -- to advance understanding of this little-known disease, to create new treatments and specialized care for their children, and to find a cure.
The CF Foundation has carried these goals forward and is working tirelessly to find lifesaving new therapies, and one day, a lifelong cure for all people living with this devastating disease.
In 1980, the CF Foundation created the Research Development Program, a dynamic interdisciplinary research center network to accelerate much-needed understanding of CF and the complexities of the disease. This network of pooled talent, with funding from the CF Foundation, contributed to the original discovery of the CF gene in 1989 -- the single most important discovery in CF research.
In the late 1990s, the CF Foundation established key programs to help speed development of CF therapies, including a national network of centers designed to conduct clinical trials and share data, and a therapeutics development program to support and govern research collaborations with biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
By pursuing these bold strategies and others, the CF Foundation has built a robust pipeline of potential new therapies that fight the disease from every angle. And, nearly every CF drug available today was made possible because of Foundation support -- including therapies to treat the underlying cause of the disease.
Learn about the CF Foundation's key research programs.
- Research Milestones: The CF Foundation has made steady progress in understanding CF and developing strategies to defeat it.
- Clinical Research: The CF Foundation provides the resources and support for studies that are leading to important new therapies and better treatments.
- Drug Development Pipeline: Discoveries from the laboratory are being turned into potential drugs that attack both the symptoms of CF and the cause -- a faulty gene that makes a defective protein.
- Research Centers: These CF "think tanks" are located at top universities and medical schools across North America, where scientists from many disciplines are brought together to combine their expertise to find a cure for CF.
- Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Therapeutics: To better support the discovery and development of new therapies, the CF Foundation created a subsidiary to manage the growing CF drug development pipeline.
- For Researchers: Numerous research and training opportunities are offered by the CF Foundation.
*Information used with permission from The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation