Rate My Professor Marc Breton

Marc D. Breton, PhD, is Associate Director of Research at the University of Virginia Center for Diabetes Technology and Professor in the School of Medicine. He earned a PhD in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia and an MS in Control Engineering from Ecole Centrale de Lille. As a founding faculty member of the Center for Diabetes Technology, spanning the Schools of Medicine and Engineering, Dr. Breton specializes in applying engineering techniques including mathematical modeling, simulation, signal processing, and automatic control to diabetes management and clinical practice. His work has centered on designing simulation environments and leading clinical trials for advanced insulin delivery systems.

Dr. Breton contributed to the development of the UVA/PADOVA Type 1 Diabetes Simulator, the first environment accepted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a replacement for animal studies in preclinical assessment of insulin treatment strategies; he now oversees its updates and further development. He has been principal investigator on numerous clinical trials testing closed-loop artificial pancreas technologies using continuous glucose monitors and subcutaneous insulin injection to avoid hypoglycemia and reduce hyperglycemia. His research interests include modeling blood glucose dynamics, regulatory hormones networks, exercise effects on glucose-insulin dynamics, and heart-glucose relationships. With over 150 peer-reviewed publications and more than 40 patents, key works include 'The UVA/PADOVA type 1 diabetes simulator: new features' (Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, 2014), 'In Silico Preclinical Trials: A Proof of Concept in Closed-Loop Control of Type 1 Diabetes' (2009), 'A randomized trial of closed-loop control in children with type 1 diabetes' (New England Journal of Medicine, 2020), and 'Consensus recommendations for the use of automated insulin delivery technologies in clinical practice' (Endocrine Reviews, 2023). He led engineering for the UVA artificial pancreas system, influencing systems like Tandem Control-IQ in clinical use.