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‘Smart’ or glucose-responsive insulins are being designed to only turn on when they’re needed and to turn off when they’re not. JDRF is supporting research to develop this pioneering treatment. These insulins could make hypos history and help ensure perfect glucose control throughout any given day.

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  • Health/Wellbeing Health/​Wellbeing
  • Medical Research Medical Research
  • Beneficiaries

    Situation

    Type 1 diabetes is a chronic, life-threatening autoimmune condition, affecting 400,000 people in the UK. The condition causes the body’s immune system to turn against insulin-producing cells. Without insulin, glucose builds up in the blood and if left untreated can lead to a coma and even death. Treatment involves manually counting carbohydrates and injecting insulin but this can be difficult to get right and over time, poorly controlled blood glucose levels can lead to serious complications.

    Solution

    Dr John Fossey at the University of Birmingham is leading a study to develop a ‘smart' insulin that becomes active in the body when blood glucose levels rise, and becomes inactive again as those levels fall. By delivering a controlled dose of insulin, as needed and without intervention, the treatment would give tight blood glucose controI to reduce the risk of complications and hypos and effectively take away the burden of type 1 to drastically improve quality of life.

    100%
    Categories

  • Health/Wellbeing Health/​Wellbeing
  • Medical Research Medical Research
  • Beneficiaries