The artificial pancreas that automatically releases the correct insulin dose to diabetic patients has won its creators the accolade of Gadget Show Live British Inventor of the Year 2014.
The result of a collaboration between designers Renfrew Group International and Professor Joan Taylor of De Montfort University, the pancreas is an implantable device with the potential to end multiple insulin injections for sufferers of Type 1 diabetes - a large proportion of whom are at risk of over or under medicating with current treatment methods.
The winning inventors were chosen by Gadget Show Live in collaboration with WIRED magazine.
Bruce Renfrew, creative director at Renfrew Group International said: "Renfrew Group and De Montfort University are delighted that the Artificial Pancreas has been given the inaugural Gadget Show Live British Inventors Award. The introduction of this award and the British Inventors Project by Gadget Show Live are really valuable platforms for raising the awareness of British innovation and celebrating this country's talent in this area. The Renfrew Group has been pleased to help develop an innovative gadget with the inventor of the science behind the pancreas, Professor Joan Taylor at De Montfort University. This beautifully simple device now has the potential to benefit millions of lives."
Professor Joan Taylor said: "This incredible device will not only remove the need to manually inject insulin, but will also ensure that perfect doses are administrated each and every time. By controlling blood glucose so effectively, we should be able to help reduce related health problems. We are extremely close to embarking on clinical trials. Diabetes is costing society more than £1million an hour in treatment, and much of that is spent on treating complications."