For anyone that has struggled through a laborious sequence of prescribed medical tests, or has been offered a ‘tried and true’ treatment with 60% success rate, the science of medicine can feel like a system, and just an imperfect science.
But lest we forget that medicine… is an art! Innovation through creative thought must be harnessed by the medical research community to supplement the new role of Big Data, AI and pharmaceutical dollars in order to uncover technological leaps, medicinal breakthroughs, and game changing / life saving devices.
Taking T1D to the Creative Wood Shed
Type 1 Diabetes is a disease that affects millions of people around the world. The requirement of dosing insulin every hour combined with continuous blood sugar testing has led to some innovative solutions like Continuous Glucose Monitors, Insulin Pumps, Slow and Rapid Release Insulin with other innovations on the horizon that could lead to a practical cure.
T1D affects my family. When I had the opportunity to participate on a fun T1D Community Event I jumped at it. The simple premise was to gather and brainstorm new innovative solutions that could cure those with T1D, or make their lives easier. The only rule was to stay away from existing tracks of known medical research- to force participants to think creatively.
The resulting brainstorming session came up with a number of new concepts and technologies that, likely would be laughed at by the medical community. But you know? So what- all it takes is ONE idea to spark the “What If” moment in a medical researcher to completely change the landscape.
Below are the far off ideas concocted in the meeting.
- Build a wall around the Pancreas
- Edible Insulin-making safe e-coli packets
- Hide the Pancreas from the Immune System
- Use your own insulin grown in a lab
- Share insulin from a tape worm or other symbiote
- Acid protective shielding for insulin Pills to get through Stomach
- Grow a new Pancreas
- Smart insulin that absorbs through stomach or esophogal cell wall
- Time Release Insulin Machine in Stomach/intestine
- Vaporized Insulin into lungs – not nose
- Gut Bacteria Protects/Creates Insulin
- Reshaped Beta Cells/Islets
- Reshaped T-Cells – existing
- Keep TCells busy with Fake Islets
- Stretch beta cells to be a different shape
- Mutate beta cells to be a different shape
- Make it so T cells can’t touch Eyelets… concave shape of eyelets
- Fuse together beta cells or fuse together eyelets??
- Give T-Cells a New Target instead of Beta Cells – “That will keep her busy”
- Beta cell growth hormone like Lizard Tails- Rapid re-growth
- Pre-digest some sugars in stomach, small intestine
- Alternative to Insulin that breaks down sugar- in the body? outside?
- Pill/Gum that lasts 24 hours /8 hours and does insulin creation
- Other Organs as Insulin makers – What part of body isn’t protected by T-cells? Make it there- eye vessels??
- Temporary T-cells destroyed for X months to let eyelets rebuild
- Stop sugar from absorbing through intestines when sugar is high
- Insulin receptor with Spider veins into blood stream -like that fancy patch, but embedded in skin – blowout/cleanable with saline??
- Train Kidneys to filter out sugar from blood stream – more than usual/lower tolerance
- Destroy sugar instead of metabolizing it in blood stream – the “Carmelizer”
- Glowstick- Crack open in Arm for sugar/insulin
