Researchers from the University of California San Diego and GlySens Inc. have developed an implantable sensor that measures blood sugar continuously and transmits the information without wires, according to a Reuters report . The device worked in one pig for more than a year and in another for nearly 10 months with no trouble, and the researchers hope to start a human study within a few months. The project funded partly by JDRF is part of the Artificial Pancreas Project which aims to develop an automated insulin delivery system based...

Jeffrey Brewer was on top of the world. For years he had put in 100-hour workweeks as cofounder of two early Internet juggernauts: local guide Citysearch and the online advertising pioneer GoTo.com (later renamed Overture). But by 2001, with more than enough money to live on for the rest of his life, the 32-year-old handed off control of Overture and set out on a yearlong trip to Australia with his wife and two kids. Upon their return to the States, though, they noticed something odd. Seven-year-old Sean was unquenchably thirsty...

An artificial pancreas recently developed at the National Center for Childhood Diabetes at Schneider Children’s Hospital in Israel, was tested on seven patients between the ages of 19 and 30. The device consists of a pump that releases insulin and a sensor, which is connected to a small computer which calculates the required amount of insulin to be delivered. The results of the trials, which were published in the journal “Diabetes Care,” were very encouraging: 70 percent of the patients maintained a reasonable...

Scott King, Hong Kong, March 2010 Scott King, pioneer diabetes biotechnology analyst, and founding President of Cerco Medical, is determined to find a cure for diabetes. More specifically, Scott is leading the development of a new technology that will provide stable blood glucose levels without injected insulin or immunosuppressive drugs. The technology is based on a removable, bio-invisible sheet called an Islet Sheet and research is ongoing now at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).   The research project’s...

The new artificial pancreas system developed at Boston University was able to maintain near-normal glucose levels without causing hypoglycemia in a small group of type 1 diabetic patients in the first clinical trial conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital. The system, that closely mimics the body’s blood sugar control mechanism, combines a blood glucose monitor and insulin pump technology with software that directs administration of insulin and the blood-sugar-raising hormone glucagon. Because any administration of...

Medtronic, Inc. announced it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the MiniMed Paradigm® REAL-Time Revel™ System, an integrated diabetes management system which combines insulin pump therapy, continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and diabetes therapy management software. The system incorporates new innovative CGM features including predictive alerts that can give early warning to people with diabetes so they can take action to prevent dangerous high or low glucose events. This new system is another...

According to a JDRF press release, a consortium of academic and industrial partners has announced a collaboration called AP@home that aims to develop an artificial pancreas which would allow automated glucose control for people with insulin treated diabetes. In the first phase of the AP@home project, currently available AP algorithms will be tested with CGM (continuous glucose monitoring) systems and insulin pumps already on the market, using a “two-port” approach that requires two skin punctures to attach the...

Diabetes UK reported today that scientists in Cambridge have shown that an ‘artificial pancreas’ can be used to regulate blood glucose in children with type 1 diabetes. A JDRF funded study found that combining a real-time sensor measuring glucose levels with a pump that delivers insulin can boost overnight blood glucose control.The new device is based on a standard insulin pump and a standard glucose monitoring system which have been turned into a “closed loop” system using a sophisticated algorithm.  The...

This morning I was feeling inspired by the interview I did with JDRF’s Aaron Kowalski about the Artificial Pancreas Project,  so I did a little google searching about artificial pancreases.  I was looking for recent news, but instead I came across this article from the New York Times, published on December 7, 1999 — just over 10 years ago. In 1999 I didn’t even have diabetes — I was a college junior, happily eating carbohydrates without fear. But people with Type 1 diabetes might have read this article and...

On January 13th, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation announced a non-exclusive partnership with Animas Corporation to develop an automated, partially closed-loop system to help control blood sugars — the first step toward a fully automated “artificial pancreas.” For anyone with Type 1 diabetes this was, of course, promising news — offering a tantalizing glimpse toward a future where a machine might actually be able to take care of diabetes for you. As part of the partnership, JDRF will contribute $8 million...