skunkbear:

Skunk Bear’s “Father of the Week” designed a bionic pancreas.

Ed Damiano’s son David was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 11 months old. So Ed started to develop a system he calls a “bionic pancreas” — It’s designed to help people better manage their blood sugar.

He’s racing to get it approved by the Food and Drug Administration before his son leaves for college in three years.

Read the full story, from NPR’s Rob Stein, here.

Images:

• Ed tests tubing for his son’s insulin pump.
• A pump that uses the hormone glucagon to help provide better blood sugar control.
• David wears a transmitter on his abdomen that sends data on his glucose levels to a monitoring unit.
• Ed Damiano and his son David, 15, play basketball at home in Acton, Mass.

Credit: Ellen Webber for NPR