7 News spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new implantable device that could provide diabetes patients with insulin without using injections. “What we’ve been able to show is that with a minimally invasive implant that is sitting just under the skin, we’ve actually been able to sort of achieve a diabetic reversal,” explains Research Scientist Siddharth Krishnan.
Gizmodo reporter Ed Cara writes that MIT researchers have developed a new implantable device that can produce its own supply of insulin for up to a month. The team envisions that the device could “eventually be used for other medical conditions dependent on a regular supply of externally produced proteins, such as certain forms of anemia treated with erythropoietin,” writes Cara.
MIT researchers have developed a new implant that in the future could be used to deliver insulin to patients for up to a month, potentially enabling patients to control diabetes without injections, reports Tony Ho Tran for the Daily Beast. In the future, the researchers hope to “develop a device for humans that would be roughly the size of a stick of gum,” writes Tran. “The implant could also be used to deliver things like drugs or proteins to help treat other diseases in humans as well.”
In this Reuters video, Ben Gruber examines how MIT researchers are working on developing new treatments for diabetes. "What we developed is basically a new material that acts like an invisibility cloak,” explains Prof. Daniel Anderson. “It coats the cells but allows them to function and live but protects them from the immune system.”
Researchers at the Koch Institute have been taking steps to find a possible cure for type 1 diabetes. Holly Ellyatt of CNBC writes that the team has developed a device to prevent “implanted insulin-producing cells from being attacked by the immune system for six months.”
STAT reporter Andrew Joseph writes that MIT scientists have developed a potential new treatment for diabetes. Joseph explains that the new technique could allow healthy insulin-producing cells to be successfully transplanted into patients.
Michelle Roberts reports for BBC News on a new, “smart insulin” being developed by MIT researchers that switches on when blood sugar rises. The engineered insulin could make it easier for those suffering from diabetes to manage the disease, Roberts explains.
New York Times reporter Gina Kolata examines a new MIT study that uncovered a rare mutation that protects people from getting Type 2 diabetes. The findings could be applied to developing a drug that mimics how the mutation operates, Kolata writes.