Livermore team wins excellence award for transferring miniature glucose sensor for diabetes patients to private sector

LIVERMORE, Calif.—The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer has honored a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory team with an Excellence in Technology Transfer Award for its work in transferring an implantable device to monitor glucose levels in diabetics to a private sector company.

The Livermore team, made up of Kevin O’Brien, Connie Pitcock, Stephen Lane, Tom Peyser, Joe Satcher and Chris Darrow, is one of 35 recipients nationwide who were awarded for their ability to transfer a technology developed by a federal laboratory to the commercial marketplace.

The Laboratory’s Medical Technology Program team has been working for more than five years on a glucose monitoring technology which would be integrated with an insulin delivery device to form a biomechanical pancreas. Through the laboratory’s work and a partnership with MiniMed Inc. (Nasdaq:MNMD) of Northridge, Calif., the biomechanical pancreas would work in both Types 1 and 2 diabetes patients.

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory’s design encompasses a sensor imbedded under the skin of patients that would monitor glucose levels, and signal an insulin pump that administers insulin, when needed. This would help the patient constantly maintain near normal glucose levels, an extremely difficult task using current therapeutic methods.

The FLC award is only given to organizations that have successfully transferred a technology to a commercial company. A panel of technology transfer experts from industry, state and local government, academia and the federal laboratory system evaluated nominations.

"This honor recognizes a hard-working and talented team, which has demonstrated the laboratory’s commitment and capacity to carry out its technology transfer mission," said Ron Franck, operations manager for LLNL’s Industrial Partnerships and Commercialization Office. "Livermore’s partnership with MiniMed highlights how transferring technologies to the private sector can have a significant impact."

The biomechanical pancreas is expected to help reduce or eliminate the pain and inconvenience of testing and injections that diabetic patients go through in a given day. Though it is still in an early developmental stage, the team’s goal is that the device eventually will eliminate the risk of long-term illnesses that affect diabetes patients.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer is a nationwide network of federal laboratories that provide a forum to develop strategies and opportunities for linking laboratory technologies with the commercial marketplace. The FLC was organized in 1974 and formally chartered by the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 to promote and strengthen technology transfer nationwide.

The FLC Awards in Excellence in Technology Transfer were established in 1984 and recognize individuals within federal laboratories that have done outstanding work in transferring technology. The following criteria must be met to be qualified for the award:

• An individual or team has demonstrated uncommon creativity and initiative in the transfer of technology
• The benefits to industry, state and local government and/or the general public are significant
• The achievements are recent

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory’s commercial partner for the program, MiniMed Inc., designs, develops, manufactures and markets advanced infusion systems with a primary emphasis on the intensive management of diabetes. The company's products include external pumps and related disposables, a first generation continuous glucose monitoring system as well as exclusive marketing rights to an implantable insulin pump, which is currently approved for distribution in the European Community and has not yet been cleared for marketing in the United States. The company is also developing new infusion systems to deliver compounds designed to treat a variety of medical conditions.

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration.