Dr Roman Hovorka has recently received $2 million from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International towards his research on the artificial pancreas.
The funding will be used for a new multicentre study which will evaluate closed-loop insulin delivery (the artificial pancreas) in a larger group of 90 young subjects and adults with type 1 diabetes over a three month period.
The team will be approaching participants at four centers in the UK and two centers in the US. The study will provide important quantitative and qualitative data on the acceptability of closed-loop in the home setting and will combine a commercial insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor with a control algorithm developed at the University of Cambridge.
Collaboration with a medical device company is taking place to the develop the artificial pancreas prototype. The study will be an important stepping stone to commercialisation of the artificial pancreas.