Type 1 Diabetes Biotechnology Product - Proposal
Problem:
Diabetes is a huge problem around the world. About 208,000 Americans under age 20 are estimated to have been diagnosed with diabetes. In 2012, 29.1 million Americans, or 9.3% of the population, had diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little to no insulin. As a result, millions of people have to regulate their blood sugar levels. To maintain a somewhat healthy insulin level, patients must take daily shots of insulin. If their blood-sugar level drops, it is potentially fatal, and results in other severe health problems. However, these treatments are painful, and expensive. Thee problem is coming up with a solution that is efficient.
Previous Attempted Solutions:
The most common treatment for diabetics nowadays are the daily injection of artificial insulin and the use of an insulin pump to monitor blood sugar levels. The current treatment sacrifices the freedom and comfort of diabetics. However, scientists today are developing the means to engineer cells to produce insulin once again. Insulin patches have also been recently introduced to the market, although they remain unavailable to most people due to cost and inconvenience.
In short, the treatments used today are still greatly unattainable. They are extremely painful to the patients, and very few people can aafford the constant need for treatments of this caliber.
Current Limitations/Present Need:
Our primary concern and limitation is that insulin is a large protein, making it difficult to get through the skin and be effective. Since we are making an insulin patch, it also makes it very difficult to figure out how to get the insulin in the actual patch. The electromagnet simply activates the patch, so we have to rule out the possibility of the magnet of affecting the way to get insulin through the skin. There aren't many possibilities in which we can work with.
We need to figure out how to make it possible to get the insulin in the patch and the body. We also need to figure out how the electromagnets would work to stimulate the insulin. On top of that, we need to figure out the size of the patch and how much insulin it can contain, as well as how much insulin needs to be released every time it is activated.
Your Proposed Solution:
Our proposed solution for Type 1 Diabetes would be to use a special insulin patch instead of a shot. These insulin patches would be hooked up to a detector that measures insulin levels blood, which itself is connected to an electromagnet. When the detector detects a need for more insulin, it activates the electromagnet. The magnet would switch polarity, and push the insulin (which would have to be magnetized beforehand) out of the patch and through the skin, entering the bloodstream.
Citations:
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/27/8260.abstract
https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/06/gu-smart-patch-2015/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-1-diabetes/basics/treatment/con-20019573
http://www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/type-1-diabetes/type-1-diabetes-facts-tips
http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/type-1-diabetes-guide/type-1-diabetes
Diabetes is a huge problem around the world. About 208,000 Americans under age 20 are estimated to have been diagnosed with diabetes. In 2012, 29.1 million Americans, or 9.3% of the population, had diabetes.
Type 1 Diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little to no insulin. As a result, millions of people have to regulate their blood sugar levels. To maintain a somewhat healthy insulin level, patients must take daily shots of insulin. If their blood-sugar level drops, it is potentially fatal, and results in other severe health problems. However, these treatments are painful, and expensive. Thee problem is coming up with a solution that is efficient.
Previous Attempted Solutions:
The most common treatment for diabetics nowadays are the daily injection of artificial insulin and the use of an insulin pump to monitor blood sugar levels. The current treatment sacrifices the freedom and comfort of diabetics. However, scientists today are developing the means to engineer cells to produce insulin once again. Insulin patches have also been recently introduced to the market, although they remain unavailable to most people due to cost and inconvenience.
In short, the treatments used today are still greatly unattainable. They are extremely painful to the patients, and very few people can aafford the constant need for treatments of this caliber.
Current Limitations/Present Need:
Our primary concern and limitation is that insulin is a large protein, making it difficult to get through the skin and be effective. Since we are making an insulin patch, it also makes it very difficult to figure out how to get the insulin in the actual patch. The electromagnet simply activates the patch, so we have to rule out the possibility of the magnet of affecting the way to get insulin through the skin. There aren't many possibilities in which we can work with.
We need to figure out how to make it possible to get the insulin in the patch and the body. We also need to figure out how the electromagnets would work to stimulate the insulin. On top of that, we need to figure out the size of the patch and how much insulin it can contain, as well as how much insulin needs to be released every time it is activated.
Your Proposed Solution:
Our proposed solution for Type 1 Diabetes would be to use a special insulin patch instead of a shot. These insulin patches would be hooked up to a detector that measures insulin levels blood, which itself is connected to an electromagnet. When the detector detects a need for more insulin, it activates the electromagnet. The magnet would switch polarity, and push the insulin (which would have to be magnetized beforehand) out of the patch and through the skin, entering the bloodstream.
Citations:
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/27/8260.abstract
https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/06/gu-smart-patch-2015/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-1-diabetes/basics/treatment/con-20019573
http://www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/type-1-diabetes/type-1-diabetes-facts-tips
http://www.webmd.com/diabetes/type-1-diabetes-guide/type-1-diabetes