--- title: Artificial Pancreas: Bionic Pancreas Researcher Launches Company description: The invention could seriously change the management of type-1 diabetes canonical: https://time.com/4278068/bionic-pancreas-company/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-01T14:20:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:04:34.551Z article:section: Health og:title: Artificial Pancreas: Bionic Pancreas Researcher Launches Company og:description: The invention could seriously change the management of type-1 diabetes og:url: https://time.com/4278068/bionic-pancreas-company/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfad664588bfa20cb/69888d2fcf40a8f244c429b9/unknown1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3253 og:image:height: 1830 og:image:alt: Unknown og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Artificial Pancreas: Bionic Pancreas Researcher Launches Company twitter:description: The invention could seriously change the management of type-1 diabetes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfad664588bfa20cb/69888d2fcf40a8f244c429b9/unknown1.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Bionic Pancreas Is Getting Closer to Reality > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Meet the Father and Son Behind a Diabetes Device With Life-Changing Potential [Watch (HLS stream): Meet the Father and Son Behind a Diabetes Device With Life-Changing Potential](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fRBp0U3q.m3u8) (2:56)  _Published 2015-09-29. While it's not a cure for diabetes, it could prove to be the next best thing._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 1, 2016 2:20 PM UTC  The iLet, a device being tested by Ed Damiano of Boston University. The iLet, a device being tested by Ed Damiano of Boston University. Ed Damiano by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Apr 1, 2016 2:20 PM UTC The race is on for what may be the biggest innovation in decades for Type 1 diabetes management—[the bionic pancreas](http://time.com/3687291/the-next-best-thing-to-a-cure-for-diabetes/)—and on Friday, one of the lead researchers in the field announced at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting that he’s launched a company to bring that invention to market. Ed Damiano, a professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University who is developing a bionic pancreas (also referred to as the artificial pancreas), has spun his academic research into a company called Beta Bionics. Recently, Beta Bionics secured $5 million from the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, which manufactures the insulin used in the device. “My goal is to bring this technology in a responsible and expeditious manner to as many people with diabetes as possible,” says Damiano. [As TIME previously reported](http://time.com/3687291/the-next-best-thing-to-a-cure-for-diabetes/), Damiano was inspired to make the device when his son David was diagnosed with diabetes as an infant. He wants the device on the market by the time David, now 16, goes off to college. People with diabetes are constantly tracking and adjusting their blood sugar with insulin or food. A bionic pancreas would automate that process. Damiano’s device, called [the iLet](http://time.com/4053668/bionic-pancreas-diabetes-2/), takes blood sugar readings every five minutes, and depending on blood-sugar levels, releases insulin to bring the sugar down or another hormone called glucagon to bring it back up, keeping blood sugar steady throughout the day. Damiano incorporated Beta Bionics as a benefit corporation. A benefit corporation allows companies to have a protected public-benefit mission. “It’s a for-profit organization but you are allowed to make management decisions that are in the interest of your mission that may or may not maximize return of equity to shareholders,” explains Damiano. Beta Bionics is not without competition. Other research groups are developing similar technology. The medical device company Medtronic is in the game, and researchers at the University of Virginia and Harvard University announced in January that they will soon test their artificial pancreas in 240 people. One of the differences between Beta Bionic’s device and others is that instead of offering automated insulin delivery only, Beta Bionic’s also releases glucagon, which allows people to bring up their blood sugar without eating a snack. Damiano says they will likely have an insulin only version of the iLet approved in 2018 with the full system approved soon after that. Beta Bionics plans to begin its final pivotal clinical trial of the device in the middle of 2017. “I’m still very hopeful about the bionic pancreas and we’re getting closer,” says Fred Cunha, whose daughter Elise, 8, was one of the youngest people to try the bionic pancreas in a trial. “Even though my wife and I can see her blood sugar on our Apple watches these days, it’s still a twenty-four-seven deal.” ## Transcript When you have Type- 1 Diabetes, when you wake up in the morning the first thing that you should be doing is checking your blood sugar. Before you get changed, that's before you have breakfast, that's before you do anything. And you have to remember that every day. From then on you have to check your blood sugar countless times throughout the day. [ MUSIC ] There's a thing called Dead in Bed syndrome when your blood sugar gets so low overnight and you don't wake up. That especially scares me. Managing blood sugar is just really a 24 / 7 obligation blood sugar. If David's blood sugars go low at night, and no one was there to intervene, he could die. My son David was diagnosed at 11 months old, I had no idea what I was in for. Do you want to start getting some insulin for Sandwich too because you're a little behind. When you have type one diabetes, throughout the day you have to remember to check your blood sugar 8, 12 times a day. My dad realized how burdensome this was, originally for me, and then for the rest of the community and he created the Bionic Pancreas as way of solving this endless routine. My dad's been working on the project for essentially my entire life. The Bionic Pancreas is a device that you wear that Has a glucose sensor that measures your blood sugars levels every few minutes. Some pumps that infuse drugs just under the skin. And then it has mathematical algorithms that sit between those two technologies, and makes automated decisions of how much drugs to administer every five minutes. The problem is that even if you've had diabetes for your entire lifetime, it's It's inevitable that you will, at some point, forget about giving a bolus or eating carbs. Everyone with Type I Diabetes needs the system in place that will automatically take care of their blood sugars for them, whether they're asleep or whether they're awake. Under all conditions. I can't use the bionic pancreas in clinical trials, because my father is the lead on the project, so that would be a conflict of interest. We've got to get something built, so that when he's ready to go off to college I don't need to be there. My wife doesn't need to be there looking over his shoulder while he sleeps. I think it's highly unlikely that we're gonna see a cure in five to ten years. The bionic pancreas is something that fills that gap... Bionic pancreas is kind of a way of Reducing the negative thoughts that I have about going to college, the fears that I have, so that I can have more of a normal lifestyle. 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