The primary areas of funding and activity in the Engineering Center for Diabetes Research and Education (ECDRE) are diverse and expanding to contribute to the treatment of diabetes and complications resulting from this disease.
Research in biomaterials focuses on the development of enabling technologies for drug delivery, tissue engineering, and wound healing. Illinois Tech has ongoing research in synthetic hydrogels for controlled and localized delivery of therapeutic molecules, hydrogels for tissue regeneration, and patterning technologies for three-dimensional tissue engineering.
Development of fully-automated multivariable artificial pancreas systems to mitigate the effects of meals, physical activities, and stress on blood glucose levels in people with diabetes. This involves modeling the glucose-insulin-glucagon dynamics in people with diabetes, developing advanced automatic control algorithms, and testing the performance of the artificial pancreas systems with simulations and clinical experiments.
Development of multivariable glucose-insulin-physiological variables simulators with virtual patients with diabetes to predict the effects of meals, physical activities, and psychological stress on glucose and insulin concentrations, heart rate, three-axis accelerometer readings, and skin temperature.
Development of digital twins of individuals with diabetes by leveraging the simulation and virtual patient technologies to represent an individual with diabetes and evaluate the effects of various medical treatments and lifestyle changes on their glucose and insulin levels.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence applications to harvest electronic health records for detecting people with undiagnosed diabetes, classify clusters of people with diabetes, and determine the most promising treatment technologies and lifestyle changes for each cluster. Machine learning is used to identify the patterns of behavior of individuals with diabetes from historical datasets, which can help predict the likelihood of their behavior on the current day for advisory systems or use in artificial pancreas systems.
Modeling the effects of medical therapies with sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP1) receptor agonists, diabetic ketoacidosis, and renal system functions. Integrating these models into simulators and virtual twins.
Microfluidics and microfabrication to engineer tissues and develop sensors to better understand metabolic diseases. Microengineering cell and tissue systems for drug screening and response of various cell types to treatments and disturbances.
Beiging of adipose tissue
Eating pathology and behavior modification