Bionic Pancreas

The Bionic Pancreas is a medical device that combines insulin delivery with glucose monitoring. The device is the first and only one of its kind to also integrate glucagon delivery.

A normal, healthy pancreas regulates blood glucose levels by arranging the secretion of insulin and glucagon, which raises blood glucose. These hormones work in tandem raising and lowering blood glucose when appropriate.

The Bionic Pancreas is used by people with Type 1 diabetes to control blood glucose and to deliver insulin. It was developed by Edward Damiano and Firas El-Khatib of Boston University/Massachusetts General Hospital and is awaiting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Damiano and El-Khatib first began testing the Bionic Pancreas on pigs in 2005. Since then, they have completed several clinical trials on adult and pediatric participants. The goal of the project is to get the device approved for market distribution by 2017. According to Art Jahnke, Damiano was motivated to build the Bionic Pancreas before his son left home for college because he feared that his son’s blood sugar would dive dramatically while he was asleep, a phenomenon known as “Dead-In-Bed-Syndrome".

The Bionic Pancreas combines the Dexcom G4 Platinum Glucose monitor with the Tandem T: Slim pump (Bionic Pancreas, 2015). An iPhone app allows the two devices to communicate with each other. Every five minutes, the Dexcom takes a blood glucose reading and checks in with the T: Slim pump, which then calculates how much insulin or glucagon should be administered. The device has undergone several FDA clinical trials and is likely to be approved in 2017. The creators of the Bionic Pancreas intend to lower its cost before it becomes commercially available since glucagon alone can cost up to $160 a day.

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