"This is a discussion," says Boris Kovatchev, 48, waving at a whiteboard on the wall of his University of Virginia office. There are no words, only scrawled equations and mathematical doodles. But "discussions" like this one, from the mathematician's brainstorming session with colleagues earlier, could help transform the lives of those with type 1 diabetes. Kovatchev has devoted much of his career to diabetes, which killed his father, and his team is among the leaders racing to develop an artificial pancreas.