Artificial Pancreas from JDRF

For patients with type 1 diabetes, its a never ending delicate art to maintain the right blood sugar levels. Although it still has to be worn on the outside, the small artificial pancreas could make the process a whole more convenient.

Researchers from multiple institutions are working on software that would allow a continuous glucose monitor and an insulin pump to work together, allowing the patient to continuously have the right amount of insulin in his blood without having to punch in the dosage themselves.

Patients with type 1 diabetes make little or no insulin, a hormone normally produced by the pancreas that breaks down glucose in food into energy. Insulin injections prevent too much sugar from accumulating in their blood, which can lead to a diabetes-induced coma. The artificial pancreas would improve diabetes control. Currently, diabetics who regularly check their blood sugar spend less than 30 percent of their day in a normal insulin range, says the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), which is funding research on the technology.

The artificial pancreas will dramatically transform diabetes care for people with type 1 who really depend on a very burdensome regimen to stay in good control," Stuart Weinzimer, an associate professor of endocrinology at Yale University School of Medicine, told the newspaper. Yale is among the institutions working on the fake pancreas.

The monitor and pump have long been seperately available in the market. The new element in the device is the computer chip.

Here’s how it would work: A computer chip embedded in the insulin pump would receive information about the patient’s blood sugar levels from a glucose monitor attached to the skin. The pump, worn on a belt or in a pocket, would then use that information to deliver insulin as needed through a needle in the belly. Patients who have both components now don't need to perform finger sticks to measure their glucose levels, but they still have to decide when to administer a shot of insulin with the pump. The closed-loop device would make that decision for them.

A spokeswoman for the JDRF couldn't say how much it would cost.

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The device is still five to 10 years away from the market, Bruce Buckingham, a professor of pediatric endocrinology at Stanford University where some of the research is going on, told USA Today. The software is being tested on devices made by Medtronic Diabetes, Abbott Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson, according to the report, and may also help patients with advanced cases of type 2 diabetes, whose bodies no longer make enough insulin or respond to the insulin they're making because of the effects of obesity or aging.

"With all three components, a user would not have to worry about dialing in the correct amount of insulin,” Ed Damiano, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University who is working on the software.

Source: JDRF