The proper treatment of diabetes can often mean the difference between life and death. Statistics from the American Diabetes Association show that 1.9 million new cases of diabetes are diagnosed in adults 20 years and up. For patients that are insulin-resistant, new and innovative research is needed to treat these patients.
A partnership between the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International and InnoCentive is offering a challenge to help with this quest. According to the InnoCentive website, an award of $100,000 is being offered for the winning team.
According to a statement on the website: https://www.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9932818
This Challenge, sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) (the Seeker), is looking for novel ideas for the development of “glucose-responsive insulin”, an insulin that would work only when the body needs it, and deliver the precise amount of insulin activity in response to circulating glucose levels to control and maintain normal blood glucose levels throughout a daily routine with once-daily or less frequent dosing in people with insulin-dependent diabetes. JDRF envisions that the Winning Solution (or Solutions) from this Challenge will be further developed in a second phase that may involve the Winning Solvers and potentially partners from the commercial sector.
“What we need is sophisticated insulin that will take the guesswork out of managing diabetes by developing a novel insulin that works in the same way insulin works in people without diabetes,” said Aaron Kowalski PhD, at the Juvenile Diabetes Research in a prepared statement. “By fostering novel approaches from diverse problem-solvers within and outside the diabetes field, we hope this challenge with InnoCentive will help speed progress toward the development of glucose-responsive insulin - progress urgently needed by people with diabetes.”
