Assessment, monitoring, and stratification of disease progression for Type II Diabetes Mellitus

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Most of the long-term health problems associated with diabetes, such as nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, cardiovascular diseases and cerebral vascular events, result from the sustained hyperglycemia (blood glucose > 11 mmol/L). Statistics Canada data shows that in 2005, 4.3% of adults was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. This increased to 6.8% in 2008/09. According to the Public Health Agency, there are an estimated 60,000 new cases of diagnosed diabetes every year in Canada. Frequent glucose monitoring and tight glucose control have been shown to improved patient health, better quality of life, and tremendous healthcare savings. My research has taken two directions towards a common goal. The first direction of my research is specifically targeted towards the development of a physiological model suitable for simulation, performance assessment, and evaluation of diabetic managements for clinical purposes. The second direction is related to the measurement of blood glucose. Any frequent glucose monitoring requires the use of a reliable non-invasive glucose sensor. Different approaches have been used to develop such a sensor which is considered the "holy grail" in diabetic monitoring and control. Most common approaches include light-based and enzyme-based measurements of body fluids such as sweat and blood. My on-going work has been focusing on the light-based approach. We also developed the first multi-organ compartment diabetic model for type II diabetes mellitus and pioneered the first device to demonstrate the proof of concept to measure accurately glucose level in solution and serum. The long-term objectives of my research are 1) to improve the management of blood glucose by employing a clinically-relevant physiological model and fault detection features suitable for monitoring and control, and 2) to improve the accuracy of optical glucose sensors. For the next five years, four specific projects have been identified to guide this research program into reaching its long-term objectives: