INsulin SImulation Glucose Homeostasis Tool: An Educational Analysis on Glucose-Insulin Interactions in Meal and Activity Scenarios

This project introduces INSIGHT (INsulin SImulation Glucose Homeostasis Tool), a MATLAB-based model designed to explore the physiological dynamics of glucose and insulin during meal ingestion and subcutaneous insulin delivery. INSIGHT builds on the classical Bergman minimal model by incorporating two additional subsystems: subcutaneous insulin absorption, represented through depot and transit compartments, and gut glucose appearance, modeled as a two-stage emptying process. These extensions allow the simulator to capture clinically relevant delays between insulin injection, its appearance in plasma, and its eventual metabolic effect, as well as the gradual rise of plasma glucose following a carbohydrate meal.The tool enables users to specify meal size, insulin bolus timing and dose, and basal infusion rates to generate customized simulations of postprandial glucose profiles. Using MATLAB’s ODE45 solver, INSIGHT computes plasma glucose, insulin concentrations, insulin effect, and appearance rates, providing outputs as time-series plots and key summary metrics such as minimum, maximum, and final glucose levels. Results demonstrate the importance of timing and dose in minimizing glucose excursions, with pre-meal bolusing and basal infusion both reducing postprandial peaks. As an educational platform, INSIGHT offers a clear and interactive framework for understanding glucose-insulin homeostasis and for illustrating the principles of diabetes management.