Insulin-delivery patch monitors and manages glucose levels

Developed by UCLA bioengineers and colleagues at UNC School of Medicine and MIT, the adhesive patch, which is the size of a US quarter dollar coin, is said to be easy to manufacture and intended for daily use.

Drug capsule could take sting out of insulin ingestion

The study, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, describes research conducted on mice and pigs. The research team, led by Zhen Gu, PhD, professor of bioengineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, is applying for US Food and Drug Administration approval of clinical trials in humans. Gu and colleagues conducted the initial successful tests of the smart insulin patch in mice in 2015 in North Carolina.

“Our main goal is to enhance health and improve the quality of life for people who have diabetes,” Gu said in a statement. “This smart patch takes away the need to constantly check one’s blood sugar and then inject insulin if and when it’s needed. It mimics the regulatory function of the pancreas but in a way that’s easy to use.”