Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in Santa Barbara has received a $2.25 million federal grant for diabetes research.

The three-year funding comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is for Sansum to continue its work on diabetes, endocrinology and metabolic research. Sansum’s research focuses specifically on Type 1 diabetes and the creation of an implantable artificial pancreas.

The announcement of the grant came from the office of Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara.

The goal of the project is to develop a fully implanted artificial pancreas. The institute is trying to produce a safe, cost-effective device that can be commercialized on a large scale.

“Sansum Diabetes Research Institute has been making tremendous strides in reaching most of our goals in Type 1 diabetes research,” Dr. Howard Zisser, the study’s principal investigator, said in a statement. “However, there is much more we need to do to keep up the momentum for treating the disease, improving quality of life, reducing the impact of diabetes on our society, as well as building a bridge to a cure. This is a quantum leap forward in this critical area of diabetes research.”