The mathematician's control toolbox for management of type 1 diabetes

Blood glucose levels are controlled by well-known physiological feedback loops: high glucose levels promote insulin release from the pancreas, which in turn stimulates cellular glucose uptake. Low blood glucose levels promote pancreatic glucagon release, stimulating glycogen breakdown to glucose in the liver. In healthy people, this control system is remarkably good at maintaining blood glucose in a tight range despite many perturbations to the system imposed by diet and fasting, exercise, medications and other stressors. Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) results from loss of the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas, the beta cells. These cells serve as both sensor (of glucose levels) and actuator (insulin/glucagon release) in a control physiological feedback loop. Although the idea of rebuilding this feedback loop seems intuitively easy, considerable control mathematics involving multiple types of control schema were necessary to develop an artificial pancreas that still does not function as well as evolved control mechanisms. Here, we highlight some tools from control engineering used to mimic normal glucose control in an artificial pancreas, and the constraints, trade-offs and clinical consequences inherent in various types of control schemes. T1DM can be viewed as a loss of normal physiologic controls, as can many other disease states. For this reason, we introduce basic concepts of control engineering applicable to understanding pathophysiology of disease and development of physiologically based control strategies for treatment.