Beta Bionics is the maker of the iLet Bionic Pancreas. The company, which was cofounded by BU researcher Ed Damiano, is now listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker “BBNX.” Photo by Cydney Scott

Diabetes

Bionic Pancreas Company Cofounded by BU Researcher Hits the Nasdaq Stock Market

Another major milestone for Beta Bionics and its iLet device for people with type 1 diabetes that was born in engineer Ed Damiano’s lab

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Meta—the Nasdaq is home to some of the world’s biggest tech firms. And now the famed stock exchange is also host to a fast-growing company that took root in a Boston University lab two decades ago—and that has a very personal backstory.

Beta Bionics, the maker of the iLet Bionic Pancreas, an automated insulin delivery device for people with type 1 diabetes, just completed its initial public offering, allowing anyone to buy shares in the company. The iLet was invented in the BU lab of Ed Damiano, a College of Engineering research professor of biomedical engineering who cofounded Beta Bionics as a public benefit corporation in 2015; he first began work on the device in 2002—inspired by his infant son’s battle with diabetes. The company, which is listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “BBNX,” hopes going public will help raise funds for product development and infrastructure expansion.

“It’s a major milestone that will allow us to grow faster and more easily raise capital than we probably could as a private company,” says Damiano, also Beta Bionics’ executive chair of the board. “And one of the key beneficiaries of that is the type 1 diabetes community. Whatever we can do to make Beta Bionics a greater force for good, by bringing more world-class technology to more people who need it, is good for that community.”

The iLet uses sophisticated software developed in Damiano’s BU lab to automate insulin delivery and help people with type 1 diabetes more easily achieve better health outcomes. In 2023, the US Food and Drug Administration cleared the iLet for people aged six years and older with type 1 diabetes.

“Boston University faculty are renowned for their passionate pursuit of research aimed at addressing complex societal challenges. Among them, Ed Damiano serves as an inspiration for future generations of engineers,” says Thomas Bifano, BU’s vice president and associate provost ad interim for research. “His decades-long commitment to applying modern engineering principles, algorithms, and hardware to the problem of diabetes management has culminated in the creation of a groundbreaking bionic pancreas, which is already revolutionizing treatment for this chronic condition.”

A 2022 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found the iLet was better at maintaining healthier blood glucose levels than standard-of-care options. The study was funded by a National Institutes of Health grant to Damiano’s BU lab.

“The device has been out there for a year and a half, and we’ve had great success in the thousands of people who are using it,” says Damiano. “And when you look at how well those people are doing, it’s even more impressive than the results we published in the New England Journal of Medicine. That’s extremely satisfying and rewarding.”

There are now more than 15,000 patients in the United States using the iLet. Users sharing reviews have said that by automatically calculating their insulin needs and tailoring doses, the bionic pancreas has given them newfound freedom and improved their management of the disease. Parents talked about their children being able to join in more activities and sports: “She actually gets to be a kid again!” said one mom of her young daughter’s iLet use. “I never thought I would say this, but our life looks a lot like it did before our diagnosis. We are so thankful.”

“It is very uplifting to directly see the impact of our research,” says Michael J. Pratt, BU Technology Development’s managing director. His office helps researchers commercialize their inventions and discoveries. “If you are looking for a little inspiration for supporting our research at BU, look no further than these testimonials.”

For Damiano, this has been a more than 20-year journey, sparked when his son, David, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes just before he hit his first birthday. At the time, Damiano was “entirely a theoretician—I solved problems in mathematical biology for a small and highly specialized audience.” His son’s diagnosis changed all that and he now encourages early-career researchers to “be open-minded, to be flexible as to how you define yourself and what you think you might be doing in the future.”

Next on the agenda for Beta Bionics is developing new bionic pancreas technologies, including a patch pump version and a two-hormone edition; the latter would raise and lower blood sugar levels automatically by delivering insulin and the hormone glucagon.

“What drove all of this for me was a desire to build technology for David that he could use one day,” says Damiano. “But along the way, it became clear that what we were building was for the multitudes of people living with type 1, not just one kid.”

The bionic pancreas research was supported at BU by a number of organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, the Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Bantling Foundation, and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, as well as the University and private gifts.