Artificial Pancreas Work Progresses in Human Trials

The University of Virginia has announced very positive results from their first round human trials of a closed loop artificial pancreas developed solely through  a computer simulation model rather than the traditional animal trials.

This is key for two main reasons:

1. The five patients that received the system that automatically monitors their blood glucose levels and adjusts it based upon a prescribed insulin delivery regime responded very well.  Great news for people like Shelby who someday hope to manage their Type I Diabetes with this type of device.
2. The Food and Drug Administration accepted the computer simulation in approving the human trials without requiring years of animal testing first.  This has tons of implications both for the animals involved (a long-standing ethical issue in all medical research) but also in terms of cost of research and the speed with which laboratory hypotheses can be proven and converted into beneficial tools for patients.

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Developing a 'closed loop' system, also called an artificial pancreas, is sort of the holy grail in the management of Type I Diabetes.

• It would eliminate the need for painful finger prick blood glucose testing.
• It also would eliminate the specter of dangerous overnight low blood glucose episodes, which can be particularly dangerous for patients who live by themselves.
• It allows blood glucose levels to be dialed in much more precisely within a 'normal' range thereby delaying or preventing devastating side impact of diabetes, such as liver and kidney damage, blindness and circulatory problems.

This research was funded in major part by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and coordinated globally by the Artificial Pancreas Consortium.