|« Back to Article|
Artificial pancreas is a bridge to a cure for Annie and millions like her
MOLLY NAYLOR | April 28, 2010
Annie's parents test her blood sugar six to 10 times a day by pricking her finger and placing a drop of blood on a test strip. Depending on the number that her blood sugar monitor gives them, they then use an insulin pump to give her a dose of insulin that they hope will keep her blood sugar in a normal range.
Of course, when Annie eats, or exercises, or gets sick or scared, her insulin needs change, and her parents have to revise their calculations.
If Annie's blood sugar gets too high, she can go into a coma and end up in a hospital. If it gets too low, she can have a seizure and lose consciousness. Either extreme could result in Annie losing her battle against diabetes. And, because the danger doesn't stop when Annie's asleep, her dad gets up twice in the middle of the night — every night — to test her blood sugar.
Annie has type 1 diabetes, which means her pancreas doesn't make the insulin her body needs to convert food to energy.
What if there were a device to keep Annie's blood sugar from going too high or too low? A device that would let Annie's dad sleep all night long without harboring the constant worry that her blood sugar could soar to dangerous levels? A device that would give her exactly the dose of insulin she needed when she needed it and stop giving insulin when she didn't? Such a life-altering device is within the grasp of the 20,000 type 1 diabetes patients in the Greater Houston area. It's an artificial pancreas — nothing short of a miracle of modern technology — and it's right around the corner in scientific terms, thanks to a private foundation and two public companies.
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Animas Corp., a Johnson & Johnson company, have entered into a partnership for the development of a first-generation, partially automated, artificial pancreas over the next three to four years. JDRF is committing $8 million and substantial research knowledge to the project. The device will combine Animas insulin pump technology with Dexcom continuous glucose sensor technology.
Using a sophisticated computer program under development by a JDRF-funded consortium, the artificial pancreas will automatically deliver or stop delivering insulin in order to prevent dangerous high or low blood sugar episodes. The result? Prevention of seizures, comas, hospitalizations and deaths that are an everyday hazard of life when you live with type 1 diabetes.
Annie's parents dream of spending just one day and night without being scared for their 5-year-old daughter. And thanks to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the advances of modern medical technology, their dream is closer than ever to coming true.
Naylor is executive director of the Houston Gulf Coast Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. JDRF is the world's leading nongovernmental funder of diabetes research.