A 3D-printed Insulin-producing Implant for Type 1 Diabetes

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Northerner

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Type 1
Rice University bioengineers are using 3D printing and smart biomaterials to create an insulin-producing implant for Type 1 diabetics.

The three-year project is a partnership between the laboratories of Omid Veiseh and Jordan Miller that's supported by a grant from JDRF, the leading global funder of diabetes research. Veiseh and Miller will use insulin-producing beta cells made from human stem cells to create an implant that senses and regulates blood glucose levels by responding with the correct amount of insulin at a given time.

Veiseh, an assistant professor of bioengineering, has spent more than a decade developing biomaterials that protect implanted cell therapies from the immune system. Miller, an associate professor of bioengineering, has spent more than 15 years researching techniques to 3D print tissues with vasculature, or networks of blood vessels.

 
If the implant is too slow to respond to high or low blood sugar levels, the delay can produce a roller coaster-like effect, where insulin levels repeatedly rise and fall to dangerous levels.

I do hope they can sort this problem - sounds scary.There are so many projects yet there seem to be stumbling blocks that they all can’t get over.
 
ROFL - just considering how well this would meet my lifestyle requirements cos when all's said and done I have always been still am and presumably forever will be, a lazy madam ! :D
 
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