Team:TU Eindhoven/Synergene/Techno-Moral Vignets/Scenario2 1

Bacterial 'Islets of Langerhans'

‘Good morning mister Adams,’ doctor Rossi said. ‘I took a look at your blood test results of last week and everything seems fine. You are perfectly healthy,’ said the doctor with a forced smile on his face. ‘The problems you are having are a result of diabetes type 2. I will refer you to the room next door for an injection and I will see you next month for a follow up appointment.’

Doctor Rossi knew that in fifteen minutes, Mr. Adams would stand in front of the hospital. Just one single injection and he was ‘cured’ for the rest of his life. He was able to continue with his eating habits and the diabetes type 2 didn’t influence the rest of his normal life style. Back in Mr. Adams’ younger days, people diagnosed with diabetes type 2 had to take daily doses of insulin. Day after day, week after week, year after year. On top of that you had to adapt you’re eating habits and lifestyle. You were forced to live in a healthier way. ‘As you should’, doctor Rossi always said, ‘the way you’re living is destroying you. Diabetes 2 is only one of many damages you do to your own body.’

Those were the old days. Then those weird scientists came up with their genetically modified animals.

These ‘animals’ as he called them were actually bacteria which were able to produce synthetic insulin. In the beginning it was not possible to inject these bacteria in the human body because of the immune system. The bacteria were instantly attacked and killed by the immune system without the possibility to function properly. Until 5 years ago, when the solution, or problem if one asked doctor Rossi, was found.

About 5 years ago they were able to coat bacteria with DNA to prevent them being attacked and killed by the immune system of the human body. Due to this improvement it was made possible to introduce these insulin producing bacteria into the human body. These bacteria had a feedback system which triggered them to produce insulin. Every time the glucose levels reached a certain threshold the bacteria started producing insulin again.

The response of the bacteria was too slow to fulfill the amount of insulin that was needed with some of the more extreme patients. This problem was solved just a year ago. The coating of the bacteria was modified in such a way that they were not only invisible for the immune system but also able to communicate with their surroundings and recruit their other bacterial friends to join in the production of insulin. This improvement solved the flaw of the feedback system. These bacteria could now serve as a replacement for the Islets of Langerhans, which originally had the function to produce insulin. It had been a revolution in modern science and even doctor Rossi was tremendously excited during that time. Nowadays, he had many patients like Mr. Adams, too many in his opinion.

After a couple days the symptoms of Mr. Adams would disappear, never to return again. He would go to the follow up appointment at the hospital were doctor Rossi would tell him that everything was fine and worked properly. “Another guy weighing in at 200kg without the intention to make a difference. Saved by the benefits of technology and not his change in lifestyle. What a wonderful world we are living in,” doctor Rossi muttered to himself.