Neuro Modulated Diabetes Control (NeuMeDic): Decoding the brain and neural pathways to achieve a better control of diabetes

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Diabetes is a disease caused by a breakdown in the glucose metabolic process resulting in abnormal blood glucose fluctuations. Traditionally, control has involved external insulin injection in response to elevated blood glucose to substitute the role of the beta cells in the pancreas, which would otherwise perform this function in a healthy individual. The central nervous system (CNS), however, also plays a vital role in glucose homoeostasis through the control of pancreatic secretion and insulin sensitivity which could potentially be used as a pathway for enhancing glucose control. Within this context, a novel emerging field called bioelectronic medicine, which relies on electrical modulation of the neural signals to the organs, has been introduced as an alternative treatment to using pharmaceuticals. Furthering this new emerging field, this PhD project aims at studying whether there is potential benefit of interfacing with the neural pathways through bioelectronic medicine for acquiring a tighter control of glucose levels in people with diabetes.In more detail, this PhD project aims at: i) understanding the physiological basis that underlie this neural regulation in the healthy and diabetic states in vivo (particularly during meals), ii) studying for the first time the potential benefits of modulating these neural signals in vivo for diabetes management and iii) developing novel mathematical models to be included in existing healthy and diabetes simulators. This new approach for diabetes management will have a great impact on the diabetic patients' quality of life. It will allow diabetic people to automatically maintain a better glucose control, leading to a reduction of the complications derived from its deregulation. It will also impact health care services by reducing the medical costs associated with this disease ($245 billion in US in 2012).Therefore, the proposed PhD will lead to major scientific contributions in the fields of Neurotechnology and Diabetes. This PhD is in alignment with several EPSRC research areas, including Mathematical Biology and Engineering Design.