Objective
The objective of this project is to create and validate a wearable, minimally invasive system that can monitor C‑peptide continuously over time, rather than relying on occasional blood tests. Continuous C‑peptide monitoring would provide a clearer, time‑resolved view of how much insulin the body is still making, which is essential for understanding disease progression and for evaluating new therapies intended to preserve or restore insulin production. In this project, we will build and test a prototype sensing approach and then perform a pilot preclinical study to show that it can track changing C‑peptide levels under controlled conditions.
Background Rationale
C‑peptide is produced and released when the body makes its own insulin, making it a direct indicator of remaining beta‑cell function. In type 1 diabetes, beta‑cell function declines over time, and accurately tracking that decline is increasingly important as disease‑modifying and beta‑cell‑preserving therapies advance. However, today’s “gold standard” approaches measure C‑peptide intermittently and typically require clinic visits and repeated blood draws, which limits how often measurements can be made and makes it difficult to observe rapid changes. A minimally invasive approach that measures C‑peptide in the fluid under the skin could enable more frequent, time‑resolved monitoring that better reflects real‑world physiology and could substantially improve how therapies are evaluated in both research and preclinical settings.
Description of Project
Type 1 diabetes results from the immune system damaging the insulin‑producing cells of the pancreas, and many emerging therapies aim to preserve or restore these cells. A key challenge is that the best marker of the body’s own insulin production, C‑peptide, is currently measured only through occasional blood draws and clinic‑based tests, which provide limited snapshots rather than a continuous picture. This project will develop and test a minimally invasive, wearable approach that can track C‑peptide changes over time using fluid just under the skin, with the long‑term goal of enabling more practical, time‑resolved monitoring of beta‑cell function. By providing frequent measurements rather than episodic testing, the technology could help researchers evaluate new therapies more efficiently and, eventually, support more personalized disease monitoring.
Anticipated Outcome
We anticipate delivering a preclinical proof‑of‑concept that C‑peptide can be tracked continuously using a skin‑compatible sensing platform. Specifically, the project is expected to produce a working prototype that generates time‑resolved sensor readouts that change as C‑peptide levels change, along with quantitative performance benchmarks such as sensitivity, usable measurement range, and resistance to interference in biologically relevant fluids. In the pilot animal study, we expect to demonstrate that sensor signals track controlled changes in C‑peptide levels over time and to define key practical parameters such as signal stability and response dynamics that will guide subsequent development toward longer monitoring periods and broader translational applications.
Relevance to T1D
This project directly addresses a major gap in type 1 diabetes research and therapy development: the lack of practical tools for frequent, time‑resolved measurement of beta‑cell function. Continuous C‑peptide monitoring could help researchers and clinicians better understand how quickly beta‑cell function is changing, identify early signs of therapeutic benefit or loss of function, and reduce reliance on burdensome clinic‑based testing that provides only occasional snapshots. By enabling more detailed monitoring of endogenous insulin production over time, the proposed work could accelerate the evaluation of disease‑modifying approaches and support the long‑term goal of improving outcomes for people living with type 1 diabetes.