The Israeli biotech startup Betalin Therapeutics created an artificial pancreas that will help diabetic patients deal with insulin dependency by reprogramming the current pancreas to function correctly.
The pancreas – located in the abdomen – is a vital organ crucial to the digestive process and doesn't produce enough insulin in diabetic patients, causing the amount of sugars to increase in the bloodstream, leading to symptoms such as nausea and shortness of breath.
Betalin's new artificial pancreas will not only help monitor sugar levels in the body but will also detect the amount of insulin that each patient needs and release it into the patient's bloodstream.
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Betalin Therapeutics was founded in 2015 and has two famous Nobel laureates on its board, Professor Arieh Warshel and Professor Sidney Altman.
Altman relayed to Israel Hayom his own personal difficulties coping with the disease and his hope that this new device could be utilized to help patients.
"I have Type 2 diabetes and right now, I take two injections per day of insulin and this new product will eliminate that. [People] won't have to take injections anymore, and I presume that the lifetime of the product will be several months. … I won't have to take two injections a day, I'll just have an implant and that will be good for several months."
The implant will need to be replaced every several months, but so far has not been tested in humans. In mice, it has lasted 90 days.
The entire procedure of implanting the artificial pancreas takes less than an hour, with the assistance of local anesthesia. Betalin's ground-breaking bio-artificial pancreas was engineered using pig lung tissue as well as cells secreted by insulin. It can identify a patient's blood sugar level and accurately dispense the required amount of insulin. This renders all future injections, drugs or blood glucose measures obsolete and "teaches" the natural pancreas how to release insulin properly.
Dr. Avi Treves, vice president of R&D told Israel Hayom: "The technology is based on creating a micro-artificial pancreas – so instead of the damaged pancreas, we implant an artificial pancreas under the skin that [will function] just like pancreatic organs."
"The pancreas is unique in that it functions as a complete autonomous organ, not as single cells, and can therefore be located anywhere in the body. The innovative biological organ is that the pancreas attaches to a supportive tissue and can monitor blood glucose levels and secrete insulin as needed," Professor Eduardo Mitrani, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said.
Dr. Nikolai Kunicher, CEO of Betalin praised the project, saying, "There are huge advantages. … No hospitalization is needed and it can be administered under the skin, without anesthesia in outpatient clinics. We are mimicking what actually happens in the body."
The company hopes to begin clinical trials soon.
