Behind the Scenes of the Artificial Pancreas Human Trials
Written on January 30, 2011 by Jade Haigh
Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the JDRF Capitol Chapter’s first annual Research Summit in Bethesda, MD. The summit had a very impressive line-up, including Dan Hurley, author of the book Diabetes Rising, and Dr. Aaron Kowalski, JDRF’s Vice President of Treatment Therapies.
I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Edward Damiano, a researcher at Boston University who’s currently steeped in multi-day human trials for the control algorithm on the artificial pancreas; he’s a biomedical engineer (and big math dude) working on the control algorithm that will one day determine how the artificial pancreas functions and what it will do for the individual. But Dr. Damiano also has a personal passion for seeing the artificial pancreas to come to fruition: his son, David, was diagnosed with type 1 at just eleven months old.
{We’re just getting started beefing up our video content here at the ‘Mine, so apologies in advance for the newbie quality of this video. If you have any tips for filming with a hand-held camcorder, please share!}
Dr. Damiano also shared some information about how folks can participate in the clinical trials. Yes, they are looking for volunteers to come in and sign up! To qualify, you need to be:
- willing to spend up to 5 supervised days in the hospital in Boston
- have had type 1 diabetes for at least a year, and
- have been on an insulin pump for at least a month
They welcome participants from all over the country, and even have a small travel budget for people coming from out-of-town. Right now, the research team is actively seeking participants ages 12 to 18.
Stay tuned for more details from the JDRF Research Summit tomorrow!
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