the fully implantable artificial pancreas is born

PADUA – The creation of a completely implantable artificial pancreas, for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. This will be used for the four million euros assigned to the University of Padua by the European Commission in the framework of the Future & Emerging Technologies Proactive (Fet Proactive) program – Horizon 2020. The conspicuous contribution went specifically to ForgetDiabetes, the revolutionary project conceived by Claudio Cobelli, professor emeritus of Bioengineering.
The Fet Proactive, aimed at radically new technological proposals developed in an interdisciplinary context, could not have chosen a better objective. Over the next four years, the Paduan researchers will work in collaboration with the Biorobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa for the development of an artificial pancreas. “An interdisciplinary team with the best experts in micro-nano mechatronics, modeling, control engineering, biomaterials, endocrinology, surgery and behavioral sciences has been assembled – explains Cobelli – to develop what has been considered impossible for decades: more blood glucose sensor insulin pump which, due to its highly miniaturized dimensions, can be implanted inside the abdomen and thanks to an intelligent management system, will allow a completely automatic and invisible daily control of diabetes, allowing the patient to free himself from the daily burdens of controlling his diabetes”.
THE PATHOLOGY
Type 1 is a chronic disease still without the possibility of healing: in Italy it affects about 300,000 people, including 18,000 children. The person with diabetes depends on insulin: every year he has to have 3,000 finger pricks for blood sugar control and about 1,800 injections of insulin; at each meal he must measure the amount of carbohydrates and determine the consequent dose of insulin. New technologies in recent years have greatly improved the quality of life with diabetes. The ForgetDiabetes project involves the construction of an integrated system for blood glucose sensor plus insulin pump which, due to its highly miniaturized dimensions, can be implanted inside the abdomen and thanks to an intelligent management system, will allow a completely automatic and invisible daily control of the diabetes allowing the sufferer to free themselves from the daily burdens of controlling their diabetes. ForgetDiabetes is coordinated by the Department for Women’s and Child Health of the University of Padua. At the end of the technological development process, the project will allow the experimentation to be extended to children and adolescents as well.
Federica Cappellato
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