JDRF-funded Australian research is breaking new ground with the Artificial Pancreas Project at Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research.
Associate Professor Jenny Gunton from the Garvan Institute and Dr Nigel Greenwood, an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Queensland, received an Innovation Grant from JDRF a year ago to carry out initial tests on prototype artificial pancreas software.
The JDRF-funded project used two virtual patients, generated by a simulator created by Dr Greenwood, an Artificial Intelligence expert. These virtual patients’ meal data and insulin data were obtained from actual patients with diabetes. After data analysis, the software calculated suggested insulin dosages, which were given to the simulated patients. Blood glucose readings were analysed after insulin delivery, over 55 simulated days.
The results of the testing period showed that the patients achieved blood glucose levels within the target range of 4.4.-7.8 mmol/L over 90% of the time. The average person with diabetes would be outside that range over 60% of the time. This is a remarkable result, and one that demonstrates the promise of an Artificial Pancreas.
“The ultimate aim for a ‘mechanical cure’ for type 1 diabetes would be to have a closed loop system – where you have an insulin pump which knows how much insulin to give at the right time,” said Associate Professor Gunton.
JDRF’s Head of Research Development Dr Dorota Pawlak says: “Combining diabetes expertise with mathematical innovation, this project draws on resources more commonly found in the military or robotics industries, and applies them to the next big diabetes breakthrough, an artificial pancreas. This approach to modelling possible human outcomes could expedite some of the lengthy and expensive steps of research that would usually be required.”
The next step for this project is human clinical trials.
For more information, please see the press release on the Garvan Institute website.
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