An artificial pancreas? It's not as space-age as it sounds. Just last month the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) announced they are one step closer to making the world's first artificial pancreas a reality. As part of their Artificial Pancreas Project, the JDRF has now secured a partnership with Animas Corporation to develop a fully automated treatment system for people with type 1 diabetes.
The hope is to have an artificial pancreas prototype ready for clinical trials and FDA reviews in about 4 years. If successful, the treatment system could have a revolutionary impact on the lives of people with type 1 diabetes.
How an Artificial Pancreas Works
JDRF's worldwide consortium of researchers, mathematicians and engineers are building a device that mimics how a non-diabetes affected pancreas works. As JDRF president and CEO Dr. Alan Lewis noted in his statement to the press, this first iteration of the artificial pancreas "would begin the process of automating how people with diabetes manage their blood sugar."
That automation process involves three major components working together:
1. Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM)
CGMs provide ongoing real time readings of blood sugar levels and trends. For the JDRF's pancreas project, DexCom, Inc. would provide the CGM technology.
2. Insulin Pump
These pager-sized, programmable computer devices deliver insulin through a small tube inserted under the skin, depending on changing needs.
3. Advanced algorithm
The artificial pancreas integrates existing CGM and insulin pump technology with a new computer algorithm that can calculate or sense precisely how much insulin the body needs, right when it needs it.
All three of these components in action create a "closed loop" treatment system that allows for fully automated, exceptionally tight blood sugar control, far beyond that offered by current treatment methods.
Why Developing the Artificial Pancreas Is so Important
Many people with type 1 diabetes struggle with high blood sugar, even with the best of care. This can lead to a host of complications, including kidney disease, heart attack, stroke, amputations or blindness. Add to that the daily risk of life-threatening hypoglycemia (extremely low blood sugar) and the urgency for a better treatment option is understandable.
That's one reason both the FDA and the JDRF have put the artificial pancreas project on the front burner. But Dr. Lewis also believes that delivering insulin "as needed, minute-by-minute, throughout the day to maintain blood sugars within a target range" could free people from an all-consuming life of testing, calculating and injecting.
And for many people with type 1 diabetes, that day can't come soon enough.
