The JDRF Artificial Pancreas Project  >  What is an Artificial Pancreas?

What is an Artificial Pancreas?
JDRF has taken the lead in accelerating the development of an artificial pancreas -- a system that can revolutionize diabetes care and dramatically improve the lives of people with type 1 diabetes.

An artificial pancreas will integrate two currently available technologies -- continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps -- with an algorithm that provides the right amount of insulin at the right time.  It will enable people with diabetes to achieve tight blood glucose control avoiding both highs and dangerous lows, thereby significantly reducing the risk of the disease's devastating complications.  It will also help advance JDRF's replacement and regeneration cure therapeutic strategies, where treatment success will be greatly aided by the ability to keep blood sugar tightly controlled.

Why is an artificial pancreas needed?
An artificial pancreas could potentially revolutionize diabetes care and management, significantly improving the ability of people with diabetes to maintain strict blood glucose control, and -- as a direct result -- helping reduce kidney disease, heart attacks and stroke, amputations, blindness, and death from severe hypoglycemia.

Extensive research shows that glucose control is the primary factor in avoiding the devastating complications of diabetes. The landmark Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (conducted 1983-1993) showed that intensive diabetes management and improved glycemic control reduces major long-term complications of diabetes.¹ A later study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that intensive diabetes therapy aimed at achieving good control reduced the risk of any heart disease event by 42 percent, and the risk of nonfatal myocardial infarction, stroke, or death from heart disease by 57 percent.²  

However, clinical research shows that most people with diabetes are not controlling blood glucose levels nearly well enough. The risk of complications -- and the economic burden placed on our health care system -- could be significantly lowered with devices that improve blood glucose control. And good glucose control will probably enhance the effectiveness of promising new cure therapies such as beta cell regeneration and islet transplantation.
 

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