An MIT staff member writes, "SmartInsulin stands the normal medical approach for type 1 diabetes on its head. Those who suffer from the disease produce little or no insulin, causing their blood glucose levels to rise. They are treated by ongoing injections of the hormone, which requires around-the-clock management and is often agonizingly imprecise. In contrast, a SmartInsulin solution, administered by a single daily injection, is designed to begin releasing insulin only when blood glucose rises above a certain level. Human trials for SmartInsulin, developed by chemical engineering doctoral student Todd Zion and his colleagues, are scheduled to begin next year.

"Thinking outside the box (or in this case the capsule)... If it works in humans as well as it does in rats (and that's a mighty big "if") SmartInsulin could be a radical advance in diabetes treatment, both for type 1 patients and some of the hundreds of millions of people who suffer from type 2 diabetes."