{"id":131201,"date":"2022-10-21T12:13:45","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T16:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=131201"},"modified":"2023-03-07T16:30:11","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T21:30:11","slug":"bionic-pancreas-better-for-managing-type-1-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2022\/10\/21\/bionic-pancreas-better-for-managing-type-1-diabetes\/","title":{"rendered":"Bionic Pancreas Better for Managing Type 1 Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Clinical trial finds automated insulin delivery device, iLet, helps adults and kids maintain healthier blood glucose levels<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2022\/bionic-pancreas-better-for-managing-type-1-diabetes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Thurston<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Your pancreas is like a little digestive engine, working hard to keep your body fueled and running. Just six inches long, it\u2019s responsible for turning lunch into the energy that gets you through the afternoon and making sure your blood sugars stay balanced.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_131202\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-131202\" style=\"width: 271px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/eng\/files\/2022\/10\/resize-MugShot3-500x500-1-300x300-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/eng\/files\/2022\/10\/resize-MugShot3-500x500-1-300x300-1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"261\" height=\"261\" class=\"wp-image-131202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2022\/10\/resize-MugShot3-500x500-1-300x300-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2022\/10\/resize-MugShot3-500x500-1-300x300-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/files\/2022\/10\/resize-MugShot3-500x500-1-300x300-1-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 261px) 100vw, 261px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-131202\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ed Damiano (BME)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But in people with type 1 diabetes, the pancreas fails in the second job. The organ\u2014nestled behind the stomach\u2014doesn\u2019t produce enough insulin, a hormone necessary for converting and storing sugars. Without it, those sweet carbs can\u2019t enter cells, leaving sugars stuck in the bloodstream and <a href=\"https:\/\/diabetes.org\/diabetes\/type-1\/symptoms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">people with type 1 diabetes feeling<\/a> thirsty, hungry, and tired. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/diseases-conditions\/type-1-diabetes\/symptoms-causes\/syc-20353011\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">In the long term<\/a>, diabetes can cause heart disease and damage the eyes, kidneys, feet, and skin. Patients have to constantly monitor their blood sugar levels and inject insulin in an attempt\u2014often not completely successful\u2014to keep them in check.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no cure for type 1 diabetes. But a bionic pancreas, developed in the lab of Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/profile\/edward-damiano-ph-d\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ed Damiano<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/academics\/departments-and-divisions\/biomedical-engineering\/\">BME<\/a>), and in the works for almost 20 years, is moving closer to giving the <a href=\"https:\/\/diabetes.org\/about-us\/statistics\/about-diabetes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nearly two million Americans with the chronic disease<\/a> fresh hope. In a study published Thursday<strong> <\/strong>in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nejm.org\/doi\/full\/10.1056\/NEJMoa2205225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>New England Journal of Medicine<\/em><\/a>, researchers found the wearable automated insulin delivery device, iLet, was better at managing blood glucose levels than existing standard-of-care methods.<\/p>\n<p><em>Read the full story on Boston University&#8217;s <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2022\/bionic-pancreas-better-for-managing-type-1-diabetes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Brink<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your pancreas is like a little digestive engine, working hard to keep your body fueled and running. Just six inches long, it\u2019s responsible for turning lunch into the energy that gets you through the afternoon and making sure your blood sugars stay balanced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21311,"featured_media":131202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,257,899,541,535,522,255],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131201"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137622,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131201\/revisions\/137622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}