The diabetes world is buzzing with lots of news … here are just a few of the more interesting tidbits!
- Introducing the iLet: Bionic Pancreas Dual-Chamber Pump Announced at the Friends for Life Conference 2015
The Bionic Pancreas Team, a collaborative group from Boston University and Massachusetts General Hospital, are working to make a revolutionary artificial pancreas, now dubbed the iLet. Headed by Dr. Ed Damiano, this device incorporates the Dexcom CGM technology with an insulin pump that uses one cartridge for insulin and a second cartridge for glucagon.
This site also keeps you updated on clinical trials, as they come available.
- A Non-Invasive Glucose Monitoring Device
The new technology, developed by Professor Gin Jose and a team at the University of Leeds, uses a small device with low-powered lasers to measure blood glucose levels without penetrating the skin. It could give people a simpler, pain-free alternative to finger pricking.
The technology has continuous monitoring capabilities making it ideal for development as a wearable device. This could help improve the lives of millions of people by enabling them to constantly monitor their glucose levels without the need for an implant.
- Implanted Diabetes Chips Measures Blood Sugar Levels and more
An implantable chip inserted just beneath the skin was unveiled at the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) in May 2015. This chip measures blood sugar levels, cholesterol, medication levels and other things found in the blood and has the ability to deliver this data every 10 minutes to the patient and doctor via an app on a smartphone or tablet.
“This chip is placed in the interstitial tissue and it comes in contact with fluids in the body,” Dr. Giovanni de Micheli, director of Integrated Systems Laboratory at the University of Switzerland explained. “The sensors react to the presence of particular compounds in these fluids, detect them and then send the measurements outside.”
Dr. Micheli and Dr. Sandro Carrara and their team created this chip, which can potentially monitor blood sugar for diabetics without using a lancet to draw blood as existing diabetes devices require.
The tiny device, about a half-inch rectangle, was tested in mice at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Bellinzona, Switzerland. Dr. Carrara and his team hope human trials will begin in a few years.
