The long struggle to survive fight against diabetes is likely to come to an end when an invention of an artificial pancreas will become reality. The Harvard University researchers are trying to introduce automating diabetic care through artificial pancreas.

The team of researchers has been working on the project for more than two decades. Frank Doyle, Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, predicts that the researchers’ attempt to make a fully functional automated system for diabetes would get success in about five years. Earlier, experiment on mice has already proved successful.

Pancreas in human comprises of islet cells, which work to monitor and regulate blood sugar levels by producing insulin. If these cells are killed by immune system, it would lead to the diabetes in human.

Under the influence of Type-1 diabetics, the immune system kills these cells. So, researchers are trying to devise a way through which cells can be protected from an immune attack, so far they have devised a jello-like substance.

"What we developed is basically a new material that acts like an invisibility cloak. It coats the cells but allows them to function and live but protects them from the immune system," said Daniel Anderson, an associate professor of chemical engineering leading the research.

The islets cell transplants and the ability to produce islets from stem cells already exist; the thing unachievable was to protect these cells from an immune attack, which after more research could become possible. The researchers at MIT are hoping to cure diabetes all together.