Profile - Dr Pantelis Georgiou: Bio-inspiration

Dr Georgiou is researching the application of microelectronic technology to create novel medical devices.

He has developed a Wellcome Trust funded bio-inspired artificial pancreas, which aims to improve the treatment of patients suffering from Type 1 diabetes.

Why have you developed this device?

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, in which the beta cells in your pancreas (the cells responsible for sensing your blood glucose and releasing the insulin) get destroyed. Traditional insulin injections solve the problem in the short term, but patients still end up having large glycaemic variability, meaning their blood sugar still fluctuates throughout the day – a leading cause of secondary complications like blindness, heart disease and nerve damage. The bio-inspired artificial pancreas can control the blood sugar continuously throughout the day, helping to constrain glycaemic variability and the resulting medical difficulties.

How does it work?

The artificial pancreas is worn externally and combines a continuous glucose monitor that reads your blood sugar, and an insulin pump that infuses the insulin into the body. The innovative aspect of this is the biologicallyinspired microchip which connects the two; we’ve been able to replicate the beta cells using integrated circuits on a silicon micro-chip. With this we can deliver insulin profiles that would be as expected in a healthy pancreas.

How will you develop this technology?

We’ve validated this technology through a patient simulator and were able to regulate the patient’s blood glucose within target levels 93% of the time. This allowed us to begin human clinical trials, which are currently underway at St Mary’s Campus. The next step is to develop this into a larger scale study that will take this from the clinic to the home.

— Kailey Nolan, Imperial Innovations