Current insulin therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes often results in high variability in blood glucose concentrations and may cause hype rglycemic/hypoglycemic episodes. Closing the glucose control loop with a fully automated electro-mechanical pancreas will improve the quality of life for insulin-dependent patients. An adaptive control algorithm is proposed to keep glucose concentrations within normoglycemic range and dynamically respond to glycemic challenges. A model-based control strategy is used to calculate the required insulin infusion rate, while the model parameters are recursively tuned. The algorithm handles delays associated with insulin absorption, time-lag between subcutaneous and blood glucose concentrations, and variations in inter/intra-subject glucose-insulin dynamics. Simulation results for simultaneous meat and physiological disturbances are demonstrated for subcutaneous insulin infusion. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.