The Impact of the iLet Bionic Pancreas, Created by a BU Professor | You Are Why

By alanwong ()

Rory Mansfield has type 1 diabetes, but these days he can visit a friend’s house. Play soccer. Eat what he wants. Like any other kid. It’s all thanks to the iLet Bionic Pancreas—developed in a Boston University lab by engineering professor Ed [...]Damiano—which automatically delivers just enough insulin to correct the user’s blood sugar.

Rory’s mother, pediatrician Betsey Monaco, says she and her husband, Paul Mansfield, lost a lot of sleep testing, giving injections, and just worrying about Rory and his brother Frankie, who also has type 1. Then, in 2023, Rory got the iLet from Beta Bionics, a company Damiano co-founded.

Monaco talks to Damiano about how the iLet allows Rory to live a more normal life. Damiano began conceptualizing the device in 2000, shortly after his son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 11 months. He began preclinical testing at BU in 2005. Damiano says he’s delighted that, in the short time the device has been commercially available, it has already found its way into the lives of tens of thousands of families like Monaco’s: “The project has been more rewarding than I ever imagined.”
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