New work from Boston University, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School may help individuals with type 1 diabetes live easier lives. A collaborative effort between these three groups is helping the field of human medicine make progress toward developing an effective artificial, closed-loop, bi-hormonal, pancreas. "Closed-loop," in this case, refers to the device not requiring human input in order to function. Ideally, an artificial pancreas of this sort could allow those with type 1 diabetes to live otherwise normal lives, not having to frequently monitor their blood sugar levels to determine appropriate counterbalancing actions. The "bi-hormonal" quality of this device means that it uses not just the hormone insulin, but glucagon as well. Insulin is the hormone that diabetics are most familiar with, the one that they inject into their bodies on several occasions each day. It controls blood sugar levels by converting free sugar into glycogen, a long-term energy storage molecule that can be used later on when sugar levels are low. Glucagon, by contrast, helps to keep blood sugar levels from getting too low. It converts that stored glycogen into sugar when your body needs it. In many cases, diabetes not only has a noticeable effect on the body's insulin production, but glycogen production too. This new device aims to balance levels of both hormones. Early tests with the newest version of the artificial pancreas show promise, but the device still requires some tweaking. One set of trials showed that it was able to keep blood sugar levels from going too high, but still left some patients in a trial group with levels that were too low. After some modifications, low blood sugar levels were no longer a problem, but the high-range threshold was still a bit too high. All of this said, however, things are looking good and researchers are definitely making progress. We're likely to see even better results in the next couple of years.