Since our original conception of the PAD approach, we have made multiple critical advancements.  We have made polymer-based PAD materials that release insulin in response to pulses of light from an LED light source. We have fabricated compact light sources that use an LEDs to illuminate the material trans-dermally in-vivo.  Our first results were published in Angewandte Chemie in 2013, where a reviewer called the work “Truly Innovative” and “A Paradigm Shift”

Subsequently, in 2016 we demonstrated that the insulin PAD approach works in diabetic animals, with light stimulating insulin release and blood glucose reduction. This was published in ACS Molecular Pharmaceutics, where it was named an ACS Editors’ Choice, an honor given to 1% of ACS publications.

Since then in a series of papers in 2017-2021 we have described multiple second generation PAD materials that are many times more effective at releasing insulin with light, that use higher light wavelengths that have better tissue penetration.  All of these second generation materials do not rely on polymers, but instead allow for toggled activity by using small molecule “tags” to modulate insulin solubility with light.