MASSDEVICE ON CALL — PositiveID (OTC:PSID) put the finishing touches on a first-in-class fully synthetic glucose sensing system, a critical component of its ongoing efforts toward developing an artificial pancreas for people with diabetes.
The company’s prototype, developed in partnership with Receptors LLC, can now sense and respond to glucose in human plasma, where it had previously only been demonstrated in a model blood plasma matrix.
The new system is a "mission-critical" component of PositiveID’s GlucoChip device, an implantable glucose-sensing microchip.
"The development of a fully implantable glucose sensor is one of the essential requirements for the successful development of an artificial pancreas," chairman & CEO William Caragol said in prepared remarks. "We believe that with the combined expertise of Receptors and our strong intellectual property portfolio that surrounds the development of our GlucoChip project, we are well positioned to play a potentially significant role in making an artificial pancreas a reality for people with type 1 diabetes."
PositiveID is not alone in pursuing commercial realization of an artificial pancreas, a device for diabetics which would combine a continuous glucose monitor and an insulin pump to provide automatic moderation of blood sugar levels.
Last week Minnesota-based med-tech titan Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) crept closer to realizing an artificial pancreas for diabetics with the release of clinical trial results finding that its MiniMed Paradigm insulin delivery system met clinical endpoints with low-glucose suspend technology.
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