Type 1 diabetes is a life-long struggle and it can be tedious, cumbersome, and painful for those who have it. It requires regular maintenance and insulin injections which sounds like a heavy burden to bear for the rest of one's life. So, in lieu of that, a team of MIT engineers are hoping that the implantable device that they developed would help diabetes patients.
In trials, the implant kept the blood sugar levels of diabetic mice stable for a month. The team now hopes to scale the device to humans to help treat those with type 1 diabetes—and they believe it could be used to treat other diseases as well.
“You can think of this as a living medical device that is made from human cells that secrete insulin, along with an electronic life support-system,” senior author Daniel Anderson, a chemical engineer at MIT, said in a statement. “We’re excited by the progress so far, and we really are optimistic that this technology could end up helping patients.”
- from The Daily Beast
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