FORGETDIABETES will develop an immuno-optimized, fully-implantable, fully-automated, artificial pancreas for intraperitoneal hormone delivery, enabling an optimal glycaemic control for type1 diabetes (T1D) subjects.
FORGETDIABETES was chosen in 2019 EIC Pathfinder call (FET Proactive: emerging paradigms and communities, FETPROACT-EIC-05-2019), in the subtopic category of Implantable Autonomous Devices and Materials. The groundbreaking outcome FORGETDIABEES proposes is a bionic invisible pancreas, which will free T1Dsubjects from therapeutic actions and from related psychological burden. The bionic pancreas will become a life-condition (like wearing glasses), allowing subjects to live just as everybody else.
T1D subjects require daily insulin injections to maintain blood sugar levels under control.
As the research team pointed out in the proposal: “The current therapy requires the patient to compute and self-inject an appropriate amount of insulin, resulting in multiple daily procedures (including painful finger-pricking and frustrating computation) with a therapeutic effectiveness that strongly depends on the patient’s skill.It has been estimated that only about half of the patients meet the targets recommended by the scientific societies clinical guidelines despite the exorbitant number of therapeutic actions (100 000-500 000) in one patient’s life.”
While new technologies, in particular subcutaneous glucose sensors and insulin pumps, have improved the T1D quality of life, the therapy remain extremely demanding in the sense of its strict regime, and it affects the everyday life of the patient. The FORGETDIABEES technology will entirely eliminate this burden.
An interdisciplinary team with top experts in micro-nano mechatronics, modeling, control engineering, biomaterials, endocrinology, surgery and behavioural sciences has been assembled to develop what was regarded as impossible for decades: a long-lasting system relying on a physiological glucose sensing and hormone delivery, orchestrated by personalized adaptive algorithms with advanced self-diagnostic capabilities. Pump refilling through a weekly oral recyclable drug pill will free T1D subjects from the burden of painful and awkward daily measurement and treatment actions. Wireless power transfer and data transmission to cloud-based data management system round-up to a revolutionary treatment device for this incurable chronic disease. In this project, the key technologies enabling the bionic invisible pancreas will be developed. Furthermore, extensive in vivo pre-clinical experiments along with massive in silico testing will establish the proof-of-principle, paving the way to the ambitious first-in-human inpatient trial. This paradigm will revolutionize diabetes treatment and stimulate an innovation ecosystem including research bodies, SMEs, patient organizations, diabetes societies and clinicians.
The project starts in October 2020 and will run for 54 months, until March 2025.The coordinating institution is Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Italy, and the team is composed by : University of Padova, Padova (Italy), Department of Women & Child Health; Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa (Italy), Institute of Biorobotics, and WaveComm, SME, Siena, (Italy) for bioingenering developments; Lifecare, SME, Trondheim (Norway) for the devleloping a miniaturized implantablel sensor; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montpellier (France) ; Pfützner Science & Health Institute GmbH, Mannheim (Germany), and Forschungsinstitut der Diabetes-Akademie Bad MergentheimBad (Germany) for the preclinical & clinical developments, and evaluation of the psychological impact.
▪ See the list of the projects that were chosen in the 2019 Pathfinder calls.
▪ See also the article about the ongoing Pathfinder (FET Proactive) calls for proposals.
Background information
FET-Open and FET Proactive are now part of the Enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) Pilot (specifically the Pathfinder), the new home for deep-tech research and innovation in Horizon 2020, the EU funding programme for research and innovation.