In an acknowledgement of its leadership in driving the development of an artificial pancreas, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation was asked to co-host a special symposium- “The Artificial Pancreas – A Goal within Reach?” The symposium displays dramatic progress in automating diabetes control at this weekend’s American Diabetes Association annual Scientific Sessions. The ADA meeting is a key annual gathering for diabetes researchers worldwide, and the joint JDRF-ADA symposium emphasized the partnerships JDRF is forging to bring new treatments and cures to people with type 1 diabetes.
The ADA recognized the importance of promoting JDRF’s research leading to an artificial pancreas, and of raising awareness about the science now underway. ADA noted that artificial pancreas technologies could not only significantly improve the lives of people with type 1 diabetes, but could also have a major impact on those with type 2 who are insulin-dependent.
“This joint symposium highlights how major organizations working together can move these technologies forward,” said Richard Bergenstal, M.D., Executive Director of the International Diabetes Center and the ADA’s President, Medicine & Science. “It’s going
to require collaboration between many different organizations to come together to tackle this problem.”
JDRF was happy to have the opportunity to display the progress of its Artificial Pancreas Project to the larger diabetes research community.
“It’s very exciting to work together to help people with diabetes achieve their outcomes,” said Aaron Kowalski, Ph.D., who directs JDRF’s Artificial Pancreas Project. “We’re all interested in people with diabetes achieving better glucose control. The community needs to hear what’s happening and where we are headed.”
At the symposium, funded researchers announced new, previously unpublished findings that demonstrate the potential for the artificial pancreas to improve the lives of people with diabetes. It’s been predicted that artificial pancreas technology could become commercially available within a matter of years.
Initial studies showed that an artificial pancreas system improved overnight glucose control across a range of “real-life situations” in adults – and did so without increasing the risk of dangerous low blood sugar. The findings were presented by Roman Hovorka,
Ph.D., Principal Research Associate at the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories and key member of JDRF’s Artificial Pancreas Project since the program’s beginnings.
Using an artificial pancreas system overnight, adults participating in the study remained within a target blood glucose range 70 percent of the time. This demonstrates a significant increase when compared to remaining within the target range only 47 percent of the time if not utilizing an artificial pancreas. To demonstrate the real-life benefits of AP technology, the study showed that these benefits remain constant, even after adults ate a large meal and drank a glass of white wine before bedtime. Dangerous low blood sugar – hypoglycemia – was reduced, even though alcohol is known to increase the risk of nighttime hypoglycemia for diabetics.
A second study helped to identify the “psychosocial characteristics” of people with type 1 diabetes, thus showing those most likely to be successful when using continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices, which are an important component of an artificial pancreas system. This data, presented by Marilyn Ritholz, Ph.D, Senior Psychologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, will help diabetes care providers to identify patients that the new devices are most likely to benefit.
Findings show that people with good problem-solving skills who saw CGM as a way to better understand their diabetes, or had good support from family members were among those most likely to achieve good results with the technology.
A number of other JDRF-related studies and announcements were made in conjunction with the ADA sessions.
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