Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Wanek Family Gift Launches Diabetes Project at City of Hope
January 17,
2017 by Larry Thomas in Community / Charitable Support, Industry 
The Wanek family, founders of Ashley Furniture Inds., has partnered with several anonymous donors for a gift of more than $50 million to City of Hope for a six-year project aimed at finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
City of Hope officials said the project will create a series of highly-focused programs based at City of Hope that will use an integrated approach to curing Type 1 diabetes, including immunotherapy approaches, as well as research into beta cell transplantation and preventing the body from rejecting those insulin secreting cells.
“City of Hope is extremely grateful for the Wanek family’s significant gift that will enable the institution to forward type 1 diabetes research, the results of which will have worldwide impact,” said Robert Stone, president and CEO of the organization. “We invite others to join the Wanek family and City of Hope as we continue to move even closer to a cure for type 1 diabetes.”
He said City of Hope has been involved in diabetes research for more than 40 years, and conducted research that led to the development of synthetic human insulin in 1978. Insulin is still used today by an estimated 1.5 million Americans with type 1 diabetes, and 27 million with type 2 diabetes.
The family’s gift will establish the Wanek Family Project for Type 1 Diabetes at City of Hope.
“City of Hope scientists’ research has revolutionized the understanding and treatment of diabetes,” said Todd Wanek, CEO of Ashley Furniture. “It continues today as physicians and scientists gain systemic understanding of diabetes as a complex, multifaceted disease.”
“Our family is extremely confident that City of Hope is the institution that will find a cure for the more than 1 million Americans who battle type 1 diabetes disease every day,” Wanek said.