Playing God. Project: Artificial Pancreas
When things go so advanced in the science of biology, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
Technology Review, my alma mater's magazine, is always chock full of sassy science stuff. That's kind of what you'd expect, though, from that bunch of nerds.
The latest issue covers a scientific advancement in the "diabetes" universe. Now, type 1 diabetes is an interesting disease because (boiled down) it simply means the pancreas doesn't create insulin. Unfortunately, insulin is quite an important hormone that allows the body to "manage" sugar, converting it to energy that's stored in the liver and muscles. Without insulin, diabetics use fat for energy, and that's no good. That's coma time.
Type 1 diabetics, to correct that flaw, continuously check their sugar levels and inject the missing insulin into their body. Honestly, though, the pin pricks and portable blood-level tests and insulin injections all seems rather Medieval to me. "Here, take this chart, bleed ye-self twice daily. Taste the blood, match the metallic taste with this axis and correspond it with the appropriate leech and newt powder."
If only there was a way to monitor sugar and dispense insulin automatically? Well, here comes the future.
Technology Review, my alma mater's magazine, is always chock full of sassy science stuff. That's kind of what you'd expect, though, from that bunch of nerds.
The latest issue covers a scientific advancement in the "diabetes" universe. Now, type 1 diabetes is an interesting disease because (boiled down) it simply means the pancreas doesn't create insulin. Unfortunately, insulin is quite an important hormone that allows the body to "manage" sugar, converting it to energy that's stored in the liver and muscles. Without insulin, diabetics use fat for energy, and that's no good. That's coma time. Type 1 diabetics, to correct that flaw, continuously check their sugar levels and inject the missing insulin into their body. Honestly, though, the pin pricks and portable blood-level tests and insulin injections all seems rather Medieval to me. "Here, take this chart, bleed ye-self twice daily. Taste the blood, match the metallic taste with this axis and correspond it with the appropriate leech and newt powder."
If only there was a way to monitor sugar and dispense insulin automatically? Well, here comes the future.
According to Technology Review, the Juvenile Research Diabetes Foundation is inching its way closer to an artificial pancreas. This fake organ requires three parts, a sugar-monitoring device, an insulin dispenser and a computer that links them. The first two pieces of that are approved by the FDA an on the market. It's the piece that links them that's the challenge. (Considering what technology is shoved into a cell phone, I don't see how this could be a problem.)
Farthest along in building the "closed loop" is Roman Hovorka at the University of Cambridge, in the U.K. He and his team used a wireless system to link the market-available sugar-level monitor and insulin dispenser and ran it overnight on 12 children with type 1 diabetes. The system kept the children's glucose level in the target range 61% of the time, as opposed to 23% for the children who followed their normal routine. Grrrreat successsss!
What obstacles still remain for this to be submitted for approval by the FDA? First off, algorithms. It's not enough for this machine to measure and release insulin. For it to really become the standard, it has to be able to predict movements in blood sugar (rises and falls) and mitigate the extremes. It has to factor in buckets of variables, making it quite complicated.
The other important thing that's needed is for the machine to have fail-proof operation. The electronic pancreas needs to be fully cognizant of its effectiveness. Once it starts acting wonky, it needs to shut itself off and alert the host body that it has failed. As you can imagine, that is key. A rogue faux-pancreas constantly dumping insulin into the system is no good. (I've been waiting 9 months to write that exact sentence on HAWT action.)
Either way, millions of people are waiting for the option to take out their pancreas and shove in a medical, glorified MP3 player. It can't come fast enough!
Any step towards understanding and reproducing human organs is a step closer to Playing God.
Farthest along in building the "closed loop" is Roman Hovorka at the University of Cambridge, in the U.K. He and his team used a wireless system to link the market-available sugar-level monitor and insulin dispenser and ran it overnight on 12 children with type 1 diabetes. The system kept the children's glucose level in the target range 61% of the time, as opposed to 23% for the children who followed their normal routine. Grrrreat successsss!
What obstacles still remain for this to be submitted for approval by the FDA? First off, algorithms. It's not enough for this machine to measure and release insulin. For it to really become the standard, it has to be able to predict movements in blood sugar (rises and falls) and mitigate the extremes. It has to factor in buckets of variables, making it quite complicated.
The other important thing that's needed is for the machine to have fail-proof operation. The electronic pancreas needs to be fully cognizant of its effectiveness. Once it starts acting wonky, it needs to shut itself off and alert the host body that it has failed. As you can imagine, that is key. A rogue faux-pancreas constantly dumping insulin into the system is no good. (I've been waiting 9 months to write that exact sentence on HAWT action.)
Either way, millions of people are waiting for the option to take out their pancreas and shove in a medical, glorified MP3 player. It can't come fast enough!
Any step towards understanding and reproducing human organs is a step closer to Playing God.
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I can't wait for a fake esophaguses, fake fingernails and fake back hair.
I'm the best blogger, ever.
- JLF
JLF - don't spend much time on Staten Island, eh? Plenty of fake nails, fake hair, and even an occasional fake boob.
John - nice article. I agree; all people from MIT are nerds.
What, looking for a new girlfriend, JLF?