Edward Damiano is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University. His expertise and training are in the areas of mechanical and biomedical engineering, applied mechanics, and applied mathematics. Ever since his 14-year-old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 11 months of age, he has been committed to creating and integrating closed-loop control technologies with a vision of building a bionic endocrine pancreas by the time his son heads off to college in the fall of 2017. This endeavor began with the design and development of mathematical algorithm strategies for blood glucose control, which he and his group began testing in his laboratory at Boston University in 2005 in a swine model of type 1 diabetes. In 2006, he began working with his clinical collaborators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to design their first clinical protocol.
Between 2008 and 2012, they tested their system in the inpatient setting in one-day and two-day experiments in adults and adolescents with type 1 diabetes in the Clinical Research Center at the MGH. Near the end of 2012 they received approval from the FDA to begin testing a mobile version of their system, which integrates an iPhone with their blood-glucose control algorithm, an insulin pump, and a continuous glucose monitor. Between February and September 2013, they conducted an ambitious outpatient trial testing their bihormonal bionic pancreas in five-day experiments in 20 adult subjects with type 1 diabetes in downtown Boston. In July and August 2013, they conducted their even more ambitious Summer Camp Study testing their bihormonal bionic pancreas in five-day experiments in 32 adolescent subjects with type 1 diabetes at Camp Joslin and the Clara Barton Camp in central Massachusetts.
