Artificial pancreas may transform diabetes treatment

Scientists have successfully tested an "artificial pancreas" in a home environment, an advance that holds promise to improve the lives of millions of people with diabetes.
The device monitors blood glucose levels and uses an infrared data link to relay information to an insulin pump attached to the patient's body, which adjusts insulin levels accordingly.
It had previously been tested in hospitals, but five people in the UK with Type 1 diabetes have now successfully used it at home, in a world first for such an invention, The Independent reported.
The successful home trial offers people with Type 1 diabetes - where the pancreas fails to produce enough insulin - the tantalising prospect of no longer having to worry about the balance of blood glucose and insulin in their bodies.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have been working on the artificial pancreas for several years.
By the end of this year, 24 people will have taken part in home trials of the device. It will be some years before it becomes commonly available as a treatment for Type 1 diabetes, and will initially be used only to stop people's insulin levels from falling too low at night.

However, researchers said the technology could have developed "within a decade" to a point where users would no longer have to manually monitor blood glucose levels.
The artificial pancreas could one day be used to help people with Type 2 diabetes, researchers said, but this was still a long way off.

Dr Alasdair Rankin, the director of research at Diabetes UK, said that while the technology was still in its early days, the successful home trials marked a landmark in the history of diabetes research.
"As the technology progresses, we expect to make Type 1 diabetes an increasingly manageable condition until eventually we will reach the point where people might check their artificial pancreas when they get up in the morning and then do not have to think about their diabetes for the rest of the day," he said.
Mark Wareham, 42, from Cambridge, one of the participants in the trial, said the benefits of using the artificial pancreas had been enormous.

"I felt fantastic and my energy levels were through the roof," he said.